Nickel’s structural oversupply problem: China turns up the heat

Our July short term outlook shows a three-year aggregate surplus in the nickel market exceeding 630 kt by 2022. Yet for now, price makers show no apparent concern over the mid-term as they remain focused on searching for the near-term positives of a post-Coronavirus world. In this Insight, we consider the options behind how such an imbalance could be moderated. Spoiler alert: China holds all the cards.