The three-month futures price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) slightly dropped by US$13/ton yesterday (December 15), closing at US$17,590/ton. The average nickel price of this month has reached US$16,673/ton, higher than the US$15,808/ton in the previous month.

Meanwhile, LME’s market inventory of nickel increased by 936 tons to 244,236 tons. The cumulative increase of this month was 2,574 tons so far.

According to market participants, nickel prices surged and then remained steady recently after China’s stainless steel futures fell and spot prices weren’t strong. However, due to a slight recovery of demand for stainless steel in the Chinese market, the short-term nickel price was expected to be affected by macro factors.