The three-month futures price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) surged by US$237/ton last Friday (March 26), closing at US$16,389/ton, and the spot price also soared by US$236/ton to US$16,342.25/ton.

Meanwhile, LME’s market inventory of nickel dropped by 300 tons to 260,004 tons. The cumulative increase in March has reached 9,774 tons so far.

According to market participants, nickel rebounded greatly due to stronger US dollars, good expectations of US vaccine progress which to accelerate the economic recovery, China’s rising stainless steel contract prices, and optimistic outlook of demand for new energy vehicles. Therefore, the destocking of stainless steel in China was expected to support nickel prices in the near future.