The price of nickel held onto nine-month highs on Tuesday as focus in the industry shifts to supply of the metal for the burgeoning electric vehicle market and mine production declines hit double digits.<\/p>\n
On the LME, nickel was exchanging hands for $14,925 a tonne ($6.77 a pound), the highest since mid-November last year and up by more than a third from its March lows.<\/p>\n
The Lisbon-based International Nickel Study Group reports global mined nickel fell 7.7% in June compared to the same month last year, which still counts as something of an improvement from the sharp falls in April and May. <\/p>\n
Year to date production has fallen by more than 10% to 1.1 million tonnes due to covid-19 related disruptions in major producing regions including Philippines (\u201328% drop in output year on year) Canada (\u201319%) and Indonesia (\u201311%).<\/p>\n
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a price discovery agency for the global battery supply chain on Tuesday launched a first of its kind<\/a> nickel price as demand from the EV sector reshapes the nickel industry, currently dominated by stainless steel.<\/p>\n \u201cMixed Hydroxide Precipitate (MHP) nickel is rapidly becoming a focal point as a raw material input to the nickel chemical industry and is set to see further uptake as supply from new projects enters the market.\u201d<\/p>\n MHP is an intermediate product of nickel metallurgy derived from laterite ores, which contains both nickel (typically 34-55% Ni content) and a small amount of cobalt (typically 1-4.5% Co content) according to Benchmark.<\/p>\n The CEO of EV pioneer Tesla, Elon Musk, in July promised a \u201cgiant contract for a long period of time<\/a>\u201d to environmentally responsible nickel mining companies. Nickel destined for EVs are expected to make up 30% of the market longer term versus a fraction of that now.<\/p>\n Existing suppliers have far from a clean record. Norilsk Nickel has been fined billions for a diesel spill in Russia\u2019s arctic <\/a>and Metallurgical Corp of China\u2019s Ramu plant that spilled mine waste into Papua New Guinea\u2019s Basamuk Bay a year ago is facing similar pressure from locals<\/a> and environment groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n New projects to feed the EV supply chain are primarily in Indonesia at operations that use high pressure acid leaching (HPAL) to extract nickel and cobalt from these low-grade ores. <\/p>\n Like Ramy, many of these use deep-sea tailings as a means of waste disposal.<\/p>\nGiant and long<\/h2>\n
Pally up with Indonesia <\/h2>\n