The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that originated in China but has since spread to more than 40 countries poses a serious threat to the Chinese nickel market, with demand, and therefore prices, said to be at considerable risk in the short term.
While supply of nickel remains largely steady despite reports of some output cuts in China, demand for the metal has been hit by the country's waning stainless steel sector amid the ongoing viral outbreak. This has kept nickel prices under pressure in recent weeks and is likely to continue doing so until there is a significant industrial recovery in China, market sources told Fastmarkets this week.Though these measures are slowly being lifted, they remain in effect across a number of cities and provinces in China and thus are still having a material impact on logistics and on how quickly workers can return to...