"Supply of nickel deliverable to the London Metal Exchange could jump next year by 35% compared to 2022 levels as new plants for nickel processing in China and Indonesia could cause a glut and crash prices, analysts at Macquarie Group say.
The new plants in Asia would process growing volumes of intermediate nickel products into LME-deliverable nickel metal, the strategists wrote in a note quoted by Bloomberg. The pure nickel metal accounts for only 20% of global production of nickel, the other forms of nickel are intermediate products used in the steel and battery manufacturing industries.
The market for nickel is at a “turning point,” Macquarie’s analysts said.
This year, the physical market has been oversupplied, and prices have slumped to around $20,000 per ton as more supply from Indonesia has hit the market."