Nickel Prices were Strong amid the Favourable Macro Front

SHANGHAI, Dec 5 (SMM) - On the macro front, on November 30, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said that the pace of interest rate hikes may slow down as early as at the December meeting. In addition, on the evening of November 30, the United States released the ADP payrolls in November, which is also known as "non-farm employment forecast". The US ADP payrolls in November stood at 127,000, far lower than the forecast value of 200,000, which may restrict the interest rate hikes in December and benefit the commodity prices.

On December 1, the Indonesian government did not reach a final agreement on the taxation of NPI and the taxation is expected to be postponed for 2 years, hence this news had no negative effect on the nickel prices. On the supply side, the SHFE/LME price ratio remained low, and the imports of spot pure nickel continued to suffer losses and the domestic spot supply of pure nickel was tight. In terms of NPI, the NPI inventory increased further. However, the NPI plants were reluctant to ship under the high costs. On the demand side, a steel rolling mill in south China plans to undertake annual maintenance from December 15, 2022 to January 29, 2023, during which time its cold-rolling production lines will be suspended, hence the market supply of cold-rolled coil may decline further. In terms of the alloy, orders for civil alloy were still weak, while military sector still had rigid demand for pure nickel. To sum up, the supply of pure nickel continues to be tight, and the nickel prices are expected to remain volatile.