Nickel prices surged to their highest in a year overnight, propelled by buying from speculators and industrial consumers worried about potential future shortages.
A key ingredient in batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), nickel could be subject to increasingly heavy demand with an expected shift from diesel and petrol cars in the coming years.
“We’ve been hearing about consistent strong Western consumer buying as the main driver of the price, probably related to EV nickel hedging requirements,” said Nicholas Snowdon, metals analyst at Deutsche Bank in London.
In September 2017, Anglo Pacific Group PLC (LON:APF) entered into a royalty agreement with Brazilian Nickel Ltd (Brazilian Nickel) to acquire an initial 1% gross revenue royalty over the Piauí nickel-cobalt project.