Nickel will drop 8pc by year-end
Monday, 16 November 2009
LONDON, Nov 15 (Bloomberg): Nickel, heading for its worst week in two months, will decline 8 per cent by the end of the year as demand weakens, research group CRU said.
Nickel for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange fell 5.9 per cent this week to $16,325 a metric tonne at 7:31 a.m, the worst performance since the week ending September 4. Prices may drop to $15,000 by the end of the year, CRU said.
"The price reflects the reappearance of demand weakness in the market, both in the western world and in Asia," Maartje Collignon, an analyst at CRU in London, said by phone.
Prices rose 40 per cent this year as stainless steel mills restocked and imports into China, the world's largest user, almost doubled in the first nine months. Stainless steel mills use about two-thirds of global output.
Nickel for three-month delivery on the London Metal Exchange fell 5.9 per cent this week to $16,325 a metric tonne at 7:31 a.m, the worst performance since the week ending September 4. Prices may drop to $15,000 by the end of the year, CRU said.
"The price reflects the reappearance of demand weakness in the market, both in the western world and in Asia," Maartje Collignon, an analyst at CRU in London, said by phone.
Prices rose 40 per cent this year as stainless steel mills restocked and imports into China, the world's largest user, almost doubled in the first nine months. Stainless steel mills use about two-thirds of global output.