The three-month futures price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) slightly dropped by US$35/ton yesterday (March 18), closing at US$16,034/ton, and the spot price also fell by US$25.5/ton to US$15,991.75/ton.

Meanwhile, LME’s market inventory of nickel hiked by 426 tons to 260,208 tons. The cumulative increase in March has reached 9,078 tons so far.

According to market participants, nickel became weaker as the US dollar performed stronger and China’s inactive purchases. However, Nornickel’s downward forecast of metal output due to the suspension of its two mines, so the supply became tighter, and the future nickel price was expected to stop falling and stabilize.