Nickel continues to outperform other base and battery-use metals but there is still uncertainty about the emergence of demand for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, ED & F Man's president of commodity research, Ed Meir, said at a metals seminar for the London Metal Exchange's annual LME Week event on Monday October 28.
"The EV topic is all the rage at all the different industry conferences right now, but the real question is: when will the pressure of the EV hype on the nickel market come to bear?" Meir said.Nickel has been the subject of significant LME pricing activity over the third quarter of 2019, making it the year's best-performing base metal.The price of nickel, 3 months, LME Daily Official, hit a year-to-date high of $18,850 per tonne on news that Indonesia's ban on ore exports had been brought forward to January 2020 from 2022, with stainless steel producers and speculative EV bulls alike eager to ensure post-ore ban supplies.But while increased buying interest among fund and commodity trading advisers (CTAs) has...