Symptoms of the new commodity crises: Steep price rises in Nickel and Copper

Published: April 9, 2022, Last Updated: April 10, 2022

Many metal commodities have doubled in price since 2 years ago. Commodities are getting scarcer by the day while demand is not decreasing with the development of technology, infrastructure, societies and civilisation.

The fact that electricity costs are steeply rising in many parts of the world does not help (and is also due to the energy commodity crisis). The production of many commodities, in particularly those in the metals sectors that undergo intensive processing such as ultra-fine copper powder and ultra-thin nickel wires, rely on very energy intensive processes.

Nickel


Russia’s Norilsk Nickel is one of the world’s largest nickel producers putting Russia on the 3rd place globally in nickel production. Nickel is an important commodity because of its superior malleability and ductility. Because of these properties in addition of nickel being an excellent conductor of heat and electricity, nickel makes a great raw material for wires as nickel wires can be stretched to achieve thinness that would break other metals. As the electronic vehicle industry ramps up, it could be hindered by a global shortage of nickel, a key component in most lithium-ion batteries.

Nickel, closed at a price of 33867 on Friday 04/04/2022, a price increase of % since its low of around 11000 USD per Metric Ton in March 2020, and previously reached a high of March 2022 on futures markets amid fears of supply disruptions due to geopolitical events.

Copper


Copper is a critical commodity for electrical infrastructure, renewable energies and all technology. The price of copper has not been affected by geopolitical events as heavily as nickel in the recent months, nonetheless the price for copper has more than doubled since the lowest price of March 2020!

How to invest in to nickel and copper


Mercantile Blockchain Exchange is the first company to tokenise physical ultra thin Nickel Wire and Ultrafine Copper Powder. Qualifying investors and traders (criteria depending on your jurisdiction) can buy Nickel Wire and Ultrafine Copper Powder now after getting Withelisted (going through the KYC procedure).