Tight Supply of High-Grade Nickel Ore in Ports at Present

SHANGHAI, Feb. 23 -- According to sources at ports, supply of high-grade nickel ore was not much in the spot market, and it was also difficult to place orders from Indonesia at present. In this context, supply of high-grade nickel ore was slightly tight in the port at present.

According to a nickel miner, high-grade nickel ore from the company has already sold out at present recently, and the company only has low-grade and standard-grade nickel ore available for sales. It is expected that some arrivals of high-grade nickel ore will gradually enter the port in the future. The miner also told that prices of nickel ore were slightly higher than the level at the end of 2009 as NPI prices rose at the early of 2010.

 According to a nickel trader in the port, the high-grade nickel ore has already sold out, and supply from Indonesia was also tight at the beginning of 2010. In this context, there were no arrivals of goods at present temporarily, and supply of nickel ore shall depend on arrivals of goods in the April.

According to market insiders, current NI: 2.0%, FE: 10-20%, H2O:30-35% of the nickel ores were sold at RMB 480/wmt in Lianyungang port, and were sold around RMB 500/wmt in Tianjin port. Current increases of nickel ore prices are relatively significant.

(Edited by SMM)