The shift toward electric vehicles (EVs) promises to have a profound impact on the commodities landscape. Here the FT reports that nickel is likely to be one of the winners from the move to EVs.
Nickel is likely to take centre stage at LME Week, analysts say. The metal is already emerging as one of the favoured ways to play the EV supply chain, as some of the largest battery makers shift towards models that use more nickel to increase the amount of power they can store, thereby boosting a vehicle’s range.
Analysts at consultancy Wood Mackenzie estimate that nickel demand in EV batteries will jump from about 40,000 tonnes in 2016 to 220,000 tonnes in 2025. To put that figure in perspective, the global nickel market is 2.1m tonnes in size.
“That’s what the world is focusing on,” said Geoffrey Sambrook, a former metals trader who now writes on the industry under the pen-name Lord Copper. “We all know copper will perform well with the increase in EVs but it’s the minor metals where the interest is.”
Read more here (subscription required).
