Wait-and-see attitude prevails amid weak nickel, approaching year-end

摘要

The relative nickel price stabilisation in October raised hopes that the market had reached a bottom.Austenitic alloy surcharges for November rose, but this had limited impact on buying activity given theapproaching year-end, when distributors seek to pare stocks as much as possible. What happened inNovember was another sharp price fall that dragged down the nickel cash price to a low of 8,160/t late inthe month. The price fall, however, was accompanied by a strengthening of the US dollar relative to theeuro; this had the effect of mitigating the nickel price drop in euro terms. Austenitic alloy surcharges forDecember are thus mostly – but only slightly – higher than in November.