Aug. 19 (SMM) -- The short-term outlook for nickel remains uncertain, and volatility in the metal's price is likely to remain high as fears over a slowdown in economic growth, the U.S. debt burden and euro-zone sovereign debt weigh across world commodity markets, executives of Finland's Talvivaara Mining Company (TLV1V.HE) said Wednesday.

"After the quarter end, market conditions have become challenging once again, with nickel prices declining back to their 2011 lows seen earlier in the summer, and the very recent financial markets volatility impacting business confidence," the company's board of directors said in an interim report for the first half of the year.

The price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange fell to its lowest level in almost a year last week, slipping as low as $20,200 a metric ton as industrial metal markets tumbled.

Talvivaara said that while current macroeconomic uncertainties create risks for further declines in the metal's price, longer-term fundamentals, including its marginal cost of production, appear to support the nickel price around $20,000/ton.