"Outside influences" can result in a boom to bust....great news for copper and copper stocks RIGHT NOW...who's watching what happened to the nickel boom mostly tied to the EV battery market??
Go back more than a 1-2 years ago, nickel was well on its way to $16-17 per pound USD (aside from the even higher short run-up due to the nickel contract squeeze on the LME etc) with all sorts of stories of production deficits etc..
Where are we now?? nickel is barely $8, 75% of nickel producers are in the red and the market is now flooded (some say for years to come)..
So what happened??boo hoo just another lesson in natural commodity boom&bust market forces??? NOT THIS TIME so the story goes, and it mostly has to do with whats happened in INDONESIA as a result of a certain foreign superpower having either direct or even indirect influence on these nickel assets .
HOW?? 1st INDONESIA has come out of no-where and is now supplying up to 40% of the worlds current supply of semi finished nickel..Its pretty astonishing and this was done by DIRECT INVESTMENT or political influence with INDO. government officials that all tie back to this certain foreign superpower. (and in many cases , they have state government connections)
WHY?? simple, lowers the input cost for everthing EV as well as their pig-nickel blast furnaces for producing so called dirty stainless steel (of which they are #1 in the world in terms of capacity).
Lesson for the kids, another reason never to trust the LME...research yourself as the story is outthere ..regards, dwdc