Offices of Tsingshan Holding Group in Shanghai. Credit: Chen Yuyu/VCG via Getty Images
The price of nickel on the London Metals Exchange (LME) has been in disarray, causing a huge bet on falling prices made by Chinese tycoon Xiang Guangda late last year to backfire spectacularly. Prices more than doubled to over $100,000 a tonne last week, forcing the 145-year old exchange to stop trading in nickel contracts — with Xiang’s company Tsingshan Holding Group facing an $8 billion paper loss.
Xiang Guangda. Credit: QQ
Xiang, also known as ‘Big Shot,’ has a long history of upending the market for nickel, a key ingredient in stainless steel and electric vehicle batteries, though usually with more success. Privately-owned Tsingshan has grown into a global industry leader that’s now at the center of a sprawling, vertically-integrated business empire. In turn, that has made Xiang’s family one of the most powerful in Zhejiang, the eastern province known for churning out many Chinese entrepreneurs.
This week, The Wire takes a closer look at the Tsingshan bu
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