The three-month futures price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) surged by US$339/ton yesterday (October 20), closing at US$16,023/ton, and the spot price also rose greatly by US$341.25/ton to US$15,976.25/ton.

The average nickel price this month reached approximately US$15,009/ton so far, slightly higher than US$14,825/ton in the previous month.

Meanwhile, LME’s market inventory of nickel decreased by 510 tons to 236,832 tons. The cumulative increase of this month was 456 tons so far.

According to market participants, nickel prices continued hiking due to the continuous weakening US dollar and the International Nickel Study Group (INSG)’s estimated 2,000 tons higher in the global nickel demand for 2021. The short-term nickel price was expected to keep strong.