Mr. Anton Berlin, the head of marking at Russian Norilsk Nickel indicated that the company has booked sales for several weeks ahead.

He added that customers would buy on short-term contracts rather than long-term, due to uncertainty in their own sales.

Also, Mr. Berlin said that the nickel prices will move along with the fluctuations in investors’ positions instead of changes in industrial demand.

Meanwhile, Norilsk Nickel planned to raise its nickel production at mines in Africa and Australia this year after the nickel prices rebounded from the low of US$9,050/ton in 2008.

The company expected to expand its nickel output as much as 3.4% this year after forecasting a capital spending of US$3 billion for 2012.