nickel hits 13 year high, page-3

from miningnews.net

Norilsk says speculation driving nickel: report


Friday, October 03, 2003
SPECULATION rather than a big fundamental gap in supply and demand could lie at the heart of the soaring nickel price, according to the world's biggest producer of the metal, Russia's Norilsk Nickel.

Deputy chief executive Maxim Finsky told Reuters in an interview that Norilsk was forecasting a further 10% increase in the price of the metal by mid-2004, and for palladium prices to remain stable for up to four months.

"It's difficult to forecast, but we see that the price of nickel will rise," Finsky said. "We expect that maybe until the middle of next year we will see a rise of 10%."

"There is no fundamental base for such a rise. The deficit is very small for nickel on the market and the rise is connected to speculative reasons," he said.