The LME nickel futures hiked by US$307 last Friday (December 23), closing at US$29,547/ton. The spot price also went up by US$302, reaching US$29,377/ton.

The increase in nickel prices has reached US$2,560, or 9.5%, so far this month, and the price has greatly risen by US$8,790, or 42.3%, since this year.

So far this month, the nickel price has averaged US$28,744/ton, higher than US$25,571/ton in the previous month. The LME nickel inventory decreased by 144 tons, coming to 54,300 tons. The inventory has hiked by 2,178 tons since this month.

The US inflation showed signs of cooling in November, so the US dollar weakened, which led to a rebound in nickel prices. Market participants said that the nickel still performed weakly in needs, but the US interest rate hike has eased, and the short-term trend of nickel prices will still be dominated by the macro.