Nickel

摘要

Continued uncertainty surrounding the strength of the global economic recovery was highlighted this month by a sharp, albeit temporary, drop in LME nickel prices. The recurrence of sovereign debt problems in Ireland coupled with inflation concerns in China and monetary tightening elsewhere prompted the official LME cash nickel price to fall from over 24,000 dollars/t (10.9 dollars/lb) to 21,475 dollars/t (9.7 dollars/lb) by mid-November. Despite the severity of the drop, spot nickel has re-gained lost ground on the back of fund and speculative buying and has returned to levels of around 24,000 dollars/t (10.9 dollars/lb) in early December.