According to National Bureau of Statistics of China,production of nickel in China during November 2012 was 23,016.5 tonnes(of nickel content),up 2.8%from 22,389.0 tonnes in the preceding month,down 14.5%from 26,924.6 tons recorded in November 2011.
Considering the holidays of early October,November production was actually down from its preceding month on daily production basis,basically due to the expiry of the low power rate period and the continued demand slump.
One thing to note is that the Bureau,upon its release of the November figures,also announced that the production during the eleven months(January to November)of 2012 was 191,190.6 tonnes,up 5.2%from the same period of 2011,however,the Bureau had reported last year that the production during the first eleven months of 2011 had been 252,411 tonnes,which does not make sense.Some of the past data might have been somehow revised.
The nickel metal price in China went up in the second half of November reflecting the rises in LME.Although LME prices dropped early December,the metal's price in the offers by Jinchuan Nickel did not drop so much.
The prices of nickel bearing ferroalloys have been kept low basically due to the still weak domestic demand,despite the cost-raising factors of higher power rates and the intensified curtailments.The contracted prices of nickel-pig-iron,in Zhejiang and Shandong,declined RMB100-150/ton late November,and then stayed almost unchanged until December 10,while those of ferronickel(Ni:10–15%),in Inner Mongolia,also declined RMB20/mtu Ni at the end of November without no further changes until December 10.
