The three-month futures price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) soared by US$417/ton last Friday (April 30), closing at US$17,674/ton, and the spot price also greatly hiked by US$421/ton to US$17,653/ton.

The average nickel price of April reached US$16,507/ton, higher than the US$16,401/ton in the previous month.

Meanwhile, LME’s market inventory of nickel dropped by 168 tons to 262,044 tons. The cumulative increase in April has reached 1,800 tons so far.

According to market participants, nickel prices rebounded greatly due to strong US economic figures, obvious destocking of stainless steel in China, and sliding nickel inventory. In the short run, nickel price was expected to keep strong and stable.