High nickel price has impact
on
tank storage sector
Due to the war in Ukraine, there was a massive increase in the price of many metals in March. For instance, the price of nickel shot through the roof: the market (LME) was even forced to stop trading and reverse any profits and losses that had been made over a period of a couple of days. This also had an impact on prices for the construction of new tanks.
Price explosion
Nickel is so commonly used because it is an alloy used to produce many types of steel. This means nickel is often mixed with other metals in order to, for example, make them more corrosion-proof. The surge in the price of nickel had a major impact on the price of all metals that are based on nickel. In the meantime, the nickel market has normalised to a certain degree.
But it was not strange to see the price of nickel increase so rapidly because Russia is the largest exporter of nickel in the world. And panic quickly spread through the metal markets soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This caused the price to skyrocket at the start of March. There was a great deal of unrest because prices increased both from a procurement and sales perspective.
Why was trading in the nickel market stopped?
The London Metal Exchange even temporarily stopped trading to avoid a situation where traders would not be able to meet their margin calls, because this would be accompanied by ‘various bankruptcies’.
Zinc and aluminium also experienced massive price increases. Sales Director, Enzo Panella explains: “Some of the quotes we issued were only valid for a period of 24 hours. Prices were changing on a daily basis. Thankfully, the ship has now steadied somewhat.”