Nickel

The AI boom is driving increased demand for turbine blades and vanes used in aircraft engines and gas turbines powering data centers. Four specialized manufacturers—Howmet Aerospace, Precision Castparts, Consolidated Precision Products, and Doncasters Group—dominate Western production, benefiting from high technical barriers, long lead times, and pricing power, though expansion risks include material shortages and past industry downturns.

BYD's new Datang SUV achieved 150,000 pre-orders in 53 days in China without using nickel, impacting Indonesia’s nickel industry reliant on electric vehicles. The SUV's success highlights a shift in China's EV supply chain away from nickel.

The Philippines, a major nickel producer in Southeast Asia, faces a critical juncture in its nickel policy. Weak policy design risks depleting nickel resources instead of leveraging them for national industrialization.

Petrobras, Brazil's oil company, has partnered with the state development bank to research critical minerals like lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, and rare earths. The move marks a shift into battery metals and materials essential for wind turbines and electronics.

Brazilian Nickel is seeking an anchor investor for a $1.4bn nickel and cobalt mine in Brazil. The project represents a test of Western efforts to secure battery metals outside of China.

India's Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and National Mineral Development Corporation (NDMC Ltd) are exploring acquisitions of Russian coking coal assets and increasing nickel imports to reduce reliance on existing suppliers and support steel expansion and electric vehicle transition.

SAIL and NMDC are exploring sourcing coking coal and nickel from Russia, with SAIL establishing an internal panel to study the matter. Both entities are engaged in talks with Russian counterparts for raw material procurement.

Chinese firms and state-owned enterprises, including China First Heavy Industries, absorbed Indonesian assets of bankrupt stainless-steel producer Jiangsu Delong in 2024, highlighting China's strategy to secure upstream mineral resources like nickel for military-grade metals and nuclear submarine production.

Indonesia is the world's largest producer and exporter of palm oil and a major seller of thermal coal and nickel. The country's radical export experiment has impacted its commodity trade. Indonesia dominates the global market in these commodities.

Nickel prices have increased after a report of Indonesian NPI production cut. The cut in production is expected to impact the global nickel market. Nickel smelting is affected by this change.

Nickel prices have surged to a two-year high due to tightening supplies from Indonesia, driven by reduced exports and increased global demand for the metal used in electric vehicle batteries.

A nickel supply deficit is projected due to policy uncertainty in Indonesia and the war in Iran.