Weekly Mining Commentary

Weekly Mining Commentary Author: Sid Rajeev, Head Of Research Six out of seven global equity...

Weekly Mining Commentary Author: Sid Rajeev, Head Of Research Global equity indices remained...

Weekly Mining Commentary Author: Sid Rajeev, Head Of Research Global equity indices remained...

Weekly Mining Commentary Author: Sid Rajeev, Head Of Research All the global equity indices we...

Weekly Mining Commentary Author: Sid Rajeev, Head Of Research Four of the seven global equity...

Weekly Mining Commentary Author: Sid Rajeev, Head Of Research All the global equity indices we...

We remain firm on our outlook for an economic recovery in the second half, based on the rollout of vaccines, and improving consumer sentiment.

Four of the seven global equity indices we track retreated in the past week (orange bars).After several consecutive weeks of declines, India and Germany experienced a surge in new cases of COVID-19 last week. Eight of the top 15 hardest hit nations reported a WoW increase in new cases last week.

Weekly Mining Commentary Author: Sid Rajeev, Head Of Research Five of the seven global equity...

Potential Breakthrough for Nickel Supply
A noteworthy event last week was a 13% decline in nickel prices. This was a result of an announcement by China’s Tsingshan Holding Group (the world’s largest stainless steel producer) that they have developed a new technology/manufacturing process to convert nickel pig iron into a product suitable for EV batteries. We consider this to be a major development as, until recently, only Class 1 (sulphide ore), which accounts for 50% of nickel supply, was considered to be suitable for EV batteries. Due to their higher iron content and impurities, Class 2 nickel (ferronickel and nickel pig iron) was not considered to be suitable. Tsingshan’s new process could potentially double the supply of nickel for EV batteries, and ease concerns of a nickel shortage for batteries. Last month, Elon Musk had stated that nickel supply was a major concern. We had expected this news to result in a larger drop in nickel prices.