Youve mentioned this logic before and its not correct.There is...

Youve mentioned this logic before and its not correct.

There is nothing wrong with quoting the LME nickel price as the bellwether for pricing. If you superimpose a price chart of class 1 (LME) and class 2 (eg: NPI) they move broadly in line with eachother. The reason why the absolute price is not the same is because of the contained nickel in class 1 (>99%) vs class 2 (anything <99%) products. It has nothing to do with oversupply. NPI will never reach parity with class 1 nickel due to the differences in contained nickel. This is a fact.

The key to understanding the nickel mkt and how NIC particpates in it, is the nickel units that can be produced. Why? Tech has advanced so much that it makes little difference whether you produce class 1 or class 2 products as they can both be twisted (for a nominal cost) into different end stated products.

There is an oversupply of nickel units in the market at the moment. That is why nickel is down (class1/2) - however it has been trending up lately - which even your eg company (IGO) has openly stated.

You have to understand that it's all about available nickel units. High purity nickel is good for sulfates, which are used in batteries. If NIC were to direct all its nickel production to this sales channel there would not be any NPI left for ss production. Its not about closing the 'gap' as you put it, its about creating optionality so that NIC can direct nickel units to the most efficient sales channel as possible.