The demand for EVs and battery storage is, I think, extremely strong, and an industry that will be least affected by a recession imho, and indeed, if you are not bullish on batteries then it would be a bit strange to invest in PAN.
The market, I believe, seems to mislabouring under the assumption that a ramp up in nickel from indonesia is going to have a dampening effect on the nickel market as a whole, and that class 2 nickel will easily be converted to meet shortfalls in sulphide mines. I don't think that the economic, technical and environmental challenges in such processes are sufficiently appreciated, and this may be one of the reasons for apprehension and mispricing in the nickel market.
The nickel price may take a beating from macro headwinds, but imo, this is a mistake. It will lead to less investment in explorations, and more would-be miners sitting on the sidelines. For current producers such as PAN, this isn't necessarily bad; it means that when the supply crunch hits it will hit harder. In other words, PAN's has good looking fundamentals regardless of what the market does in the short term.
Keep in mind that investors who follow the crowd rarely make lots of money - be greedy when others are fearful, and so on.
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