End of Vale Inco strike sole solution to high-purity Ni shortage

Nickel stocks on the London Metal Exchange have fallen by around 20% from their peak of 166,476 tonnes in February, and the recent news that production at Murrin Murrin in Western Australia has slowed to a trickle lends further credence to claims that the primary nickel market will move into deficit this year. But it is in the high-purity nickel market that the squeeze is truly being felt. Murrin Murrin, jointly owned by Minara Resources and Glencore, manufactures high-purity nickel powder and briquettes among its product range, which are used in such industries as batteries, auto and electronics, rather than the stainless steel that is the destination for the vast majority of standard, LME-grade nickel. With the strike at Vale’s nickel operations in Sudbury, Ontario, now in its eleventh month, there are precious few suppliers of high-purity nickel and the market is starving. Vale produces 80-90% of the 50-60 million...