Nickel averaged $4.25/lb ($9,520/t) through December and appears...

Nickel averaged $4.25/lb ($9,520/t) through December and appears to be now holding at $5 ($11,200) after peaking at just under $6 ($13,440).

If it settles above $5 ($11,200) for January then that is still a $17.65% improvement over December and makes for a nice price platform from which to launch another rise.

I think the long term price should settle closer to $10/lb ($22,400/t) sometime this year.

I mentioned those stockpiles in an earlier post on this list (Nickel) but assumed they were running down as a matter of course. The article says that they are holding out for higher prices and then dumping, which pushes up stocks at places like the LME and so the prices fall.

But I don't think this can occur too many times as a lot of these mines have closed their Nickel operations and so those stockpiles will eventually be exhausted leading to falling stocks at LME and a price spike above $10 before it settles back to (what I think is) the long term mean.

Robert