Russia supplies close to 20% of the supply of Class 1 nickel which is used for batteries. By March 8, the nickel price spiked to USD100,000 per tonne, partly due to some covering of ill-timed positions. The price has now settled above USD30,000 per tonne. Even before the invasion, supply conditions were tight after labour action, technical failures, flooding and unexpected maintenance halts affected supply throughout 2021.
Dominated by Australia, the global nickel exploration budget rose by 27% last year to a seven-year high of USD422bn, the highest since 2011.
Vale Indonesia will build the Pomalaa high-pressure acid leach site to make 40,000 tonnes of mixed sulphide nickel per year for batteries.
Japan’s Sumitomo will triple its capital expenditure over three years to hike its output capacity of nickel and cathodes for battery use.
