Nickel demand in Jim Lennon: Electric vehicles will grow massively after 2020

SMM11, 14 March: many market participants believe that the demand for nickel in the battery industry will increase significantly in the next few years, not only because of the increase in sales of electric vehicles, but also because the market is moving in the direction of high-nickel cathode chemicals.

In 2018, the balance between nickel supply and demand was as expected by Lennon at the end of 2017.

"demand has been very strong, especially in the first six months of the year, and supply has been weak," Lennon added, adding that the market has been in a state of significant shortages. "to my surprise, nickel prices have fallen sharply since the middle of the year, between 15 and 20 per cent, which seems to be similar to global economic concerns," he said.

When it comes to the demand of the battery industry, Lennon is optimistic about the development of nickel in the next few years. "at present, the battery industry accounts for 4 to 5 per cent of overall demand, but that is growing and the compound average growth rate is likely to reach 30 per cent," he said.

On the supply side, Lennon said the output of traditional producers he had seen this year was either static or declining because of underinvestment over the past five to seven years.

Most of the supply growth came from Indonesia, but the nickel supply in Indonesia is mainly pig iron and is not suitable for battery production.

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