Nickel Surges to Best Since 2015 on Promise of Electric-Car Boom

  • Global demand for nickel sulphate seen rising 50% by Trafigura
  • Future batteries will probably use more nickel, less cobalt
Copper-nickel ore moves along a conveyor belt at the Talnakh concentrator plant, operated by MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC, in Norilsk, Russia, on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017. Norilsk Nickel, which mines the rich deposits of nickel, copper and palladium near Norilsk, has spent 2.5 billion rubles ($40 million) to lay fiber-optic cabling in the Siberian tundra.Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

The nickel market has caught fire, with prices posting the biggest two-day advance in five years.

Nickel rose as much as 6 percent to $13,030 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange, the highest since June 2015. That added to Tuesday’s 5.3 percent gain after Trafigura Group Pte joined Glencore Plc in unveiling bullish usage forecasts. In Shanghai, prices climbed by the daily limit.