Nickel price is the most important component for the production of electric vehicles – reached a maximum for ten years during the trading in London on Wednesday, January 12th. Record rise in price occurred against the background of a reduction in metal reserves due to the growth of electric vehicles. Reports about it Financial Times.
Metal reserves in warehouses tracked by the stock exchange, are already reduced by 51 days in a row. In China, nickel reserves in official warehouses are near a record low level of 4859 tons. Nickel used in batteries for electric vehicles, I will rate for 4 percent, and quotes rose to 22.745 thousand dollars per ton. This is the maximum from the beginning of August 2011, when the price was 22,505 thousand dollars per ton. At the same time, judging by the LME metals exchange, the metal has grown in price by 12 percent.
Another factor is the growth in demand and prices for stainless rolling in China (nickel is used in production), and the prices for it in China are growing on the eve of the summer Olympiad of 2022. Another price increase factor is concerns about lower supplies from Indonesia, the world’s largest supplier of nickel. The country is going to introduce tax on the export of nickel products this year. Analyst BMO Capital Markets Colin Hamilton said that in order to prevent further reduction in nickel reserves in 2022, its deliveries will have to increase by 200 thousand tons.
According to the estimates of the International Energy Agency (MEA), the demand for nickel can take off at 19 times by 2040, if the countries of the world want to fully fulfill all the goals of the Paris Agreement on the climate.