It is understood that nickel prices continued downward trend, but global production was in short supply before April this year. The World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) released data showed in January-April, global refining nickel production and sales figures showed on the first four months of this year, the global refining nickel production totaled 531,600 tons, the apparent demand totaled 566,800 tons, thus nickel market supply shortage of 35,300 tons.

In 2016, global nickel market supply shortage of 62,000 tons. At the end of April 2017, the London Metal Exchange (LME) held more than 7,100 tons of nickel in inventories at the end of 2016.