Nickel update: April 2016

As expected, the nickel price has showed a recovery the last month. From the lowest point on April 1 (8.350USD) the price of nickel has risen to almost 9.300 USD on April 20. This is an increase of 12%. Can we ascertain that the price has found it’s way up again? “No”. According to André van der Veen, Commercial Director at HEGO. “The price increase of nickel is obviously very positive for the price development of stainless steel, but the price isn’t stable yet. For now, the bandwidth of nickel is USD 8,150 – 9,400. This means that an increase and a closing over USD 9,400 is needed to expect a further increase. If that does not happen, the price can just as easily fall back to a level of USD 8,850.”

“On the mid term we expect a lateral movement of the nickel price. The surcharge will follow this expected movement. The LT of April showed an increase of approximately €40,- per metric tonne compared to March. For May, we expect a slight decrease of about €10,- metric tonne compared to April. Although it is still early, we believe that the alloy surcharge on the other hand will rise again in June by approximately €70,- per metric tonne,” Van der Veen says.

Source: http://hego.nl/