Nickel futures in the UK surged to $15,600 per tonne, the highest since May, after testing four-year lows at $14,350 on December 16th as markets reconsidered the view of an oversupplied market. Indonesia, the world’s top nickel producer, proposed a 34% reduction in nickel output in its 2026 budget to tackle growing concerns of oversupply and warnings from miners that ore grades are deteriorating. It was the latest measure to curb oversupply of nickel since the over-expansion of the sector when Jakarta blocked the export of ores in 2020. Despite the public efforts to limit output, prolonged surpluses drove benchmark futures to underperform other base metals, with Russia’s Nornickel raised its surplus forecasts for next year to 275,000 tonnes. Also, stockpiles at the LME rose by over 90,000 tonnes this year to 254,600 as of late December. On the demand front, muted purchasing levels of stainless steel globally were offset by the higher usage of nickel in electric vehicles.

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