50 May 2016
Nickel prices and demand will eventually get better – but not in 2016,
according to panellists at the Spotlight on Nickel & Stainless session
at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries’ latest convention, held
in Las Vegas. Looking on the bright side, similarly difficult market
conditions have been encountered and overcome in the past, delegates
were also informed.
The market is experiencing major primary nickel overcapacity and it will take time for
production to slow and for demand to increase.
In the meantime, panellists argued at ISRI’S
Spotlight on Nickel & Stainless session in Las
Vegas, hedging continues to be a good method of
protecting your business until better days return.
Adrian Gardner, principal analyst at Wood
Mackenzie, informed delegates that cash nickel
averaged US$ 5.46 per lb (US$ 12 037 per tonne)
in 2015 but that prices in the last few months
have dipped below US$ 4 per lb (US$ 8818 per
tonne). ‘We need to run down nickel stocks rap-
idly for there to be any sustainable increase in
price,’ he said.
Wood Mackenzie projects that there might not be
a major uptick in prices or a reduction in nickel
deficits until around 2019, even though there have
been a few ‘flurries’ this year when prices seemed
to improve if only temporarily. ‘These flurries have
lived up to their name and have withered relatively
quickly,’ Gardner said.
The speaker put the overabundance of nickel into
perspective in the following way: at the end of
2015, there was enough nickel in stock to meet
By Megan Quinn
Hedging still a good way to
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