SPONSOR: Tartisan Nickel (TN:CSE) Kenbridge Property has a measured and indicated resource of 7.14 million tonnes at 0.62% nickel, 0.33% copper. Tartisan also has interests in Peru, including a 20 percent equity stake in Eloro Resources and 2 percent NSR in their La Victoria property. Click her for more information
Nickel demand set to rise in 2020 along with growth in electric vehicle sales
- China is stepping up its efforts to be a leader in autonomous cars and is aiming for a quarter of all cars sold in the country to be new-energy vehicles by 2025
- 500,000 tonnes of refined nickel will be used annually in lithium-ion batteries for EVs by 2025 Â
Nickel’s demand outlook looks bright, especially from the electric vehicle sector of the automotive industry
Fastmarkets analysts estimate that 500,000 tonnes of refined nickel will be used annually in lithium-ion batteries for EVs by 2025, up from 100,000 tonnes in 2018.
That growth in nickel consumption comes even before the wider adoption of the nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) 8-1-1 battery, which the market expects to become an industry staple.
A recent report drafted by the Ministry of Industry & Information Technology indicates that China will step up its efforts to be a leader in autonomous cars and is aiming for a quarter of all cars sold in the country to be new-energy vehicles [NEVs] by 2025.
NEVs include electric cars, hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles.
Ban on nickel exports in Indonesia
In response to the risk of increasing demand tightening local supply, the Indonesian government announced a ban on the export of raw nickel ores, bringing the ban forward from 2022 to January 2020.
According to GlobalData director of analysis David Kurtz, this ban is intended to produce value-added nickel products, stimulate domestic processing of ore, and make the country a hub for electric vehicle production.
Indonesia is the largest global producer of nickel and a major supplier of the metal to China’s stainless steel industry. In anticipation of the ban, Chinese producers are building up nickel inventories.
This has increased the price of nickel significantly, with prices at the end of September 2019 reaching more than $16,000 per tonne, an increase of more than 60% from January.
When the ban was announced, nickel prices increased by 8.8% to reach a peak of $18,620 per tonne, the highest price since 2014.
Source: https://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/910319/nickel-demand-set-to-rise-in-2020-along-with-growth-in-electric-vehicle-sales-910319.html