Nickel Prices to Bear Pressure from Weak Fundamentals and Banking Crisis

SHANGHAI, Mar 17 (SMM) - On the supply side, SHFE nickel prices reached a new low yesterday. The spot premiums bottomed out, and the spot quotations remained low. NPI quotations were temporarily stable. Some NPI traders held a wait-and-see sentiment. On the demand side, according to SMM research, the spot stainless steel traders quoted low prices to ship, which still failed to boost the transactions. The agents were less willing to pick up goods and mainly consumed the high-priced inventories stored earlier. Alloy companies mainly purchased on demand amid the poor orders. To sum up, the pure nickel sector faces weak supply and demand, and the risky assets were sold off amid the banking crisis in Europe and US, weighing on nickel prices.