However, that rapidly cobbled-together rescue plan (which saw meetings running into the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday morning) took a major detour yesterday when Xiang announced that he intends to keep shorting nickel, as he thinks the price will drop eventually but raising the risk that the margin call will only get worse as buyers of nickel swarm the offer and inflict even more pain on the Chinese tycoon.

By way of quick background for those who have missed one of the most dramatic moments in metals market history, Tsingshan - which under the leadership of Xiang has emerged from obscurity to become the world's biggest producer of nickel and also stainless steel - has struggled to meet margin calls as the price of nickel on the LME exploded higher as a result of an avalanche of short squeezes by producers (who traditionally hedge their physical exposure by shorting futures).