I have a debt of 3 trillion, and my creditors are begging me not to die.

With over 23% of the world's nickel mines under its control, Qingshan Group can be considered the price setter for global nickel.

Based on past experience, shorting is a good time to hedge when nickel prices exceed 8000 pesos per ton.

However, due to the fight between the two major powers, the nickel produced by the major powers was not recognized by the international market, giving nickel prices a chance to rise sharply, and it quickly reached 1.8 pesos per ton.

The market researchers at Qingshan Group unanimously believe that this price is extremely high. Even if the nickel from Russia is not recognized by the international market, based on demand and supply, the price of nickel is unlikely to rise further.

Therefore, Qingshan Group made a big move, opening short positions for 4 tons of nickel on the London Stock Exchange when they only had 20 tons of spot nickel.

At the time, the average price of short positions was 20 peso per ton. If nickel prices could return to normal, they could make at least 2 billion peso in profit.

Is there a problem with this operation?

Of course, there's no problem. This is exactly how it should be done according to normal market fluctuations.

If one had to nitpick, it would be that Qingshan Group should not have opened a short position of 4 tons when it only had 20 tons of spot nickel. This greedy act laid a huge hidden danger for them.

In March, Glencore, a global commodities giant, discovered that Ching Shan Group had placed a short order for 200,000 tons of nickel on the London Metal Exchange.

They quickly conducted an accurate and comprehensive survey of the global nickel spot market, which happened to be the time when Yang Chen instructed Xingchen Mining Group to purchase and stockpile a large amount of nickel for Xingchen Battery.

After investigation, Glencore determined that Ching Shan Group had at most 3.5-4.5 tons of spot nickel, and the amount of spot nickel available on the market was less than 5 tons. Moreover, a considerable portion of this was nickel from Da Mao that was not recognized by the London Stock Exchange.

Under these circumstances, Qingshan Group opened a short position for 20 tons of nickel, which was simply a golden opportunity to profit from Qingshan Group.

Therefore, on March 7th, Glencore invested heavily in the London Metal Exchange to drive up nickel futures prices, pushing them from 18,000 pesos per ton to 100,000 pesos per ton.

The average price of Qingshan Group's 20-ton short position was 2 peso per ton, which means that Qingshan Group's unrealized loss is as high as 160 billion peso.

At the same time, Glencore also released a nickel spot market research report, letting everyone know that the maximum amount of nickel available for delivery in the spot market is no more than 2 tons.

In this situation, both futures and spot prices for nickel remained high and couldn't fall.

As the second largest private enterprise in Zhejiang Province after Ali Gaba, 160 billion Eagle Coins is a lot, but Qingshan Group can still afford to lose money. At worst, the past 30 years of hard work will have been in vain.

With the delivery date fast approaching, nickel prices remained almost unchanged at around 10 pesos per ton. Xiang Guangnan, chairman of Qingshan Group, had no choice but to contact Glencore president Lopez for negotiations.

Xiang Guangnan didn't dare say they didn't have enough nickel in stock for delivery. He directly said he was willing to settle in cash, acknowledging the loss of 160 billion British dollars.

However, Lopez rejected Xiang Guangnan's request for cash settlement, and Glencore demanded that Qingshan Group must deliver electrolytic nickel with a purity of 99% or higher, in accordance with the requirements of the London Stock Exchange.

According to the rules of the futures market, the long side (buyer) has the right to demand that the short side (seller) settle the transaction with money or with physical delivery.

Glencore, as one of the multiple parties, demanded physical delivery, and the short seller, Qingshan Group, was obligated to make physical delivery.

Left with no other option, Xiang Guangnan had to admit that Qingshan Group did not have enough electrolytic nickel for physical delivery and requested Glencore to accept high-grade nickel matte or nickel from the Da Mao market for delivery.

Lopez refused outright and bared his fangs.

"If your company does not have enough electrolytic nickel to meet the requirements of the London Metal Exchange for physical delivery, I can offer you a solution. You can submit your mines in Indonesia for valuation and delivery, and we can give you a very high valuation."

It was only then that Xiang Guangnan realized Glencore's true purpose. From the beginning, Glencore had never intended to make money; their goal was nickel ore, or even more seriously, to control China's new energy vehicle industry.

Nickel is an essential raw material for batteries, and the whole world knows that China is now vigorously developing new energy vehicles. If foreign capital controls the price of nickel, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Xiang Guangnan explicitly rejected Lopez's proposal and quickly contacted relevant domestic companies to raise spot nickel for delivery.

However, 20 tons is far too much. He contacted all the companies he could reach, but even with his own efforts, he only managed to raise a little over 9 tons. He was still short 11 tons and could only hope that Xingchen Mining could lend a helping hand.

Xingchen Mining did indeed reserve nearly 30 tons of nickel for Sihai Battery, but this nickel was all high-grade nickel matte, not electrolytic nickel, and more than half of it came from mines owned by the Russians. This nickel was not recognized by the London Stock Exchange and could not be used to facilitate physical delivery for Qingshan Group.

Yang Chen asked, "Forget about physical delivery; we don't have that many electrolytic nickel mines outside of major mines. Our only hope is to launch a counterattack in the futures market. When will the delivery be?"

“April 8th, less than 5 trading days left,” Xiang Guangnan replied.

“That’s enough! You don’t need to do anything over there. I’ll take care of things here and rescue you. You can sell me all 4 tons of nickel you have later, and you can set the price,” Yang Chen said.

“If Chairman Yang can save us, we will sell the 4 tons of nickel to him at a price of 1000 peso per ton. What do you think?” Xiang Guangnan asked.

Normally, the price of nickel should be around 8000 Eagle Dollars per ton, so his offer of 1000 Eagle Dollars per ton is indeed quite generous.

"Alright! We'll go with your price! I'll rescue you right now. You don't need to do anything, just watch the show," Yang Chen said.

"Okay, okay. Thank you very much, Chairman Yang. I will never forget your kindness. Please don't hesitate to ask if you need anything in the future, and Qingshan Group will definitely do its best to help." Xiang Guangnan said excitedly.

Yang Chen smiled and said, "Okay. Let's talk about it later. Bye."

After hanging up the phone, Yang Chen immediately sent a message to Zhao Jing, the president of Sihai Investment.

"Xiao Jing, get ready, we're going to save Qingshan Group. I'm coming over now." At the same time, Glencore Group, through its acquisition of media outlets with foreign investment backgrounds in Longguo, released news exaggerating the impending collapse of Qingshan Group's 20-ton nickel short positions.

With extensive media coverage, the news of Qingshan Group's massive losses of hundreds of billions of yuan quickly became a trending topic online.

Qingshan Group immediately issued a statement in response to the news, explaining their actions and revealing Glencore Group's true intentions.

Netizens split into two camps and engaged in a heated discussion in the news comment section.

The critics.

"Qingshan Group deserves it. They only have 4 tons of nickel, yet they shorted 20 tons of nickel. Did they think that foreign capital was as irregular as domestic capital and that they couldn't find their flaws?"

"Don't pity them, they deserve it. Do they think they can outmaneuver foreigners when it comes to playing the capitalist game? Don't they have any self-awareness?"

“They often take advantage of their dominant market position to fleece domestic retail investors. I was one of those who were fleeced. It feels so good. Finally, someone has avenged me.”

"If Qingshan Group really loses the nickel mine, we lose control over nickel prices, which in turn hinders the development of our new energy vehicle industry, then they are sinners in history."

Encouragement group.

“Nickel prices are normally around 8000 pesos per ton, and a little over 10,000 pesos at higher prices. 20,000 pesos per ton is indeed too high. At this price, shorting for hedging is definitely not a problem. After all, Qingshan Group has too much nickel in its hands, and they must be preparing for nickel prices to fall back to normal in the future. If you really want to nitpick, it's that they only have 40,000 tons of spot nickel and they are shorting 200,000 tons.”

"It's hard to understand the faces of some people. It's clearly foreign capital that's setting up our companies, yet they're speaking up for the foreign capital. Keep up the good work, Qingshan Group! I hope relevant domestic companies will help them. This time, we absolutely cannot let the foreign capital succeed, and we cannot let the tragedy of aviation fuel be repeated on Qingshan Group."

"This is a deliberate assassination attempt. Their target is not Qingshan Group, but the new energy vehicle industry in China. Even if Qingshan Group doesn't get into trouble, other companies will. It's just that Qingshan Group's 20-ton short order gave them the opportunity to act. I hope everyone can join forces to help Qingshan Group. In short, we can't let Glencore succeed."

……

Just as netizens were arguing fiercely, Sihai Group released an announcement that it was shorting Glencore.

"According to our research, Xingchen Mining Group alone holds a total of 26.45 tons of nickel in its warehouses, while Xingchen Battery holds 5.72 tons. Xingchen Mining also holds more than 20 nickel mines in Mauritius and Africa that are not yet in production. Meanwhile, Xingchen Battery has signed a nickel purchase order with Mauritius. Currently, Xingchen Battery is the main supplier of new energy vehicle batteries globally. As long as Xingchen Battery has sufficient nickel reserves, there is no reason for nickel prices to remain high. Therefore, the current nickel price of 10 pence per ton on the London Metal Exchange is extremely unreasonable and will inevitably return to a more rational price, around 1-1.5 pence per ton. Glencore has opened a huge number of long positions in nickel futures, so we believe they will suffer huge losses, which will affect their profits this year. Therefore, we have shorted Glencore, and we believe that the reasonable price for Glencore's share price should be 110-120 pence. The current share price of 310 pence is too high and has significant room for decline."

When Sihai Investment released this announcement, netizens in China were ecstatic.

"It was Boss Yang who stepped in to help at the crucial moment."

"Boss Yang's move is brilliant! He's exchanging Glencore for Qingshan Group. Let's see if Glencore wants to protect itself or insist on swallowing Qingshan Group's mines."

"Haha... Things are different now. Before, they could seize any opportunity to take advantage of our company. Now that we have Boss Yang protecting us, they'd better think twice about whether they can bear the consequences if they try to touch our business again."

……

Sihai Investment's short-selling of Glencore to save Qingshan Group quickly caused a huge uproar on the international internet, with netizens from various countries leaving comments.

A Japanese netizen commented: "I really don't know what to say about Glencore. Do they think this is 10 or 20 years ago? Back then, China didn't have Yang Chen, so they could seize the opportunity to exploit Chinese companies at will. Now Yang Chen is already famous, don't they read the news? How dare they still target Chinese companies? Isn't that just courting death?"
A Swiss netizen commented: "Qingshan Group only has 4 tons of spot nickel, yet it opened short positions for 20 tons. Even a fool knows this is a way to squeeze out short sellers and fleece them. We oppose Yang Chen's retaliatory actions against unrelated companies and must uphold international financial investment order. People from other countries should unite against him. If he dares to do this to Glencore today, he'll dare to do the same to your country's companies tomorrow. From now on, he can only short sell and fleece companies in other countries; if companies in other countries want to fleece their companies, they'll face his retaliation. This is unfair! If you remain silent today, this fate will befall you tomorrow."

A netizen from Bald Eagle commented: "Stop making a scene. Solve your own problems instead of spreading alarmist rumors and dragging everyone down with you. When we were being shorted, you didn't stand up for him either. Blame Glencore's management for lacking foresight and failing to grasp the current situation. We all have to be polite to Yang Chen, so what right do you have to target a Chinese company? You'll just have to suffer this loss."

A netizen from the Sand Kingdom commented: "Why are you all so foolish? I often urge you online to learn from us and cooperate more with Yang Chen; it will definitely bring you many benefits. But you just won't believe me and insist on opposing them. Who else but you will suffer? Look at us now; we've entrusted almost the entire country to him for development. Will he bully us? No. He will protect us and lead us to progress."

While netizens around the world were having heated discussions, Glencore Group held an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures.

"Everyone, Yang Chen is now trying to get us to trade one for one. What should we do? Please share your opinions," President Lopez said.

Everyone immediately shared their opinions.

"All he wants is for us to lose some market value. We'll make Qingshan Group go bankrupt! Market value can be recovered, but it's much harder to rebuild a bankrupt company."

“I think so too. As long as we insist on not settling and fight them to the end, we will definitely win in the end. What we need to do is communicate well with all the shareholders and get them to stand with us through this together.”

"Maybe we should just give up. Wall Street is powerless against Yang Chen, so what can we do?"

"Wall Street is afraid of Yang Chen because they play the financial game and are unwilling to lose market value. We are a commodities trading company; even if we are delisted, it won't affect our continued business. Are we, who are in the physical trading business, afraid of his tricks?"

"Since everyone supports a hardline stance, then let's fight to the end. President, please call the major shareholders immediately and have a talk with them."

President Lopez said, "No need to talk to them. They definitely don't want to see their wealth shrink so quickly. We'll just go for it head-on. Anyway, it's only a few days left. This time, we must take down Qingshan Group. Either they go bankrupt, or they hand over the nickel mine! Don't even mention Yang Chen's intervention; even if God came, it wouldn't help!"

"Haha..." The whole audience burst into laughter.

At this point, President Lopez received a call from the French head of the company, who instructed him to insist on physical delivery from Qingshan Group and force Qingshan Group to hand over the nickel ore.

Subsequently, leaders from Italy, England, Germany, and other European countries called Lopez, expressing the same sentiment and promising to restore Glencore's share price to its original level once the deal was done, ensuring that shareholders would not suffer any financial losses.

With these bigwigs' promises, Lopez had no more worries.

Just!
We must fight Yang Chen to the bitter end! (End of Chapter)