The three-month futures price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) surged by US$320/ton yesterday (June 23), closing at US$18,064/ton. The spot price also soared by US$333.25/ton to US$18,057.75/ton.

The current average nickel price of this month is US$17,868/ton, obviously higher than the US$17,572/ton in the previous month.

Meanwhile, LME’s market inventory of nickel continued decreasing, with a drop of 1,596 tons yesterday, reaching 235,818 tons. The cumulative decrease in June has reached 11,676 tons so far.

According to market participants, despite the stronger US dollar, higher stainless steel prices in China, and the decline in global refined nickel inventory and LME nickel inventory led to a continuous surge in nickel prices. Besides, as the demand from China is still strong, the short-term nickel price was expected to keep stable.