Nickel Prices less Likely to Decline with Improvement in Demand

SHANGHAI, Apr 11 (SMM) - The spread between the SHFE front-month and next-month contracts did not narrow yesterday. The prices of NORNICKEL nickel hovered at highs despite the drop in futures prices in the early trading. The NPI market was still in a supply surplus. Some domestic NPI factories carried high in-plant finished product inventories, and so did the traders. On the demand side, according to SMM research, driven by the rebound in the futures prices last Friday, the spot stainless steel transactions in Wuxi improved. However, the transactions decreased yesterday on the falling futures prices in the early trading, and the spot prices dropped slightly. Recently, the pure nickel demand from the alloy sector has picked up slightly. In general, pure nickel demand grew slightly. SMM presumes that nickel prices are less likely to fall.