INDIA January 20 2017 4:36 PM

MUMBAI (Scrap Register): India's major nickel scrap prices stayed steady on the Scrap Register Price Index as on Thursday, while nickel futures prices at India's Multi Commodity Exchange declined 2.87 percent, surrendering all gains in the previous sessions, but weak fundamentals should not be the only one reason behind the big decline.

According to the Scrap Register Price Index, the major nickel scrap commodities like nickel cathode, nickel indco Canada (4x24), nickel indco Canada (4x4) , nickel plate(4x24), nickel plate(9x9), nickel Russian (4x24), nickel Russian(4x4) and nickel Russian(9x9) showed a flat trend on Thursday.

In futures, the most active January nickel contract on Multi Commodity Exchange dropped by 2.87 percent to Rs. 673.20 per kilogram on Thursday from previous close of Rs. 693.10 per kilogram. The MXC nickel prices touched an intra-day high of Rs. 696.40 per kilogram and an intra-day low of Rs. 672 per kilogram during Thursday. 

It is Indonesia’s decision to ease its export ban that serves the main culprit for the decline. Indonesia finally introduced new rules on January 12 that the country will allow exports of nickel ore under certain conditions. It was heard since September 2016 that the country proposed to revise its ban.