{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Battery Show","title":"Nickel Market Turns Bullish on Tight Supply and Strong Demand","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":771,"description":"Recording date: 22nd July 2026\nCanada Nickel Company (TSXV:CNC) CEO Mark Selby used this week's Battery Show appearance to lay out a market backdrop he believes is turning more favourable for nickel producers, alongside an update on his own company's flagship Crawford project.\nThe starting point is price action. Nickel had been range-bound between US$16,000 and US$17,000 a tonne, but has broken through technical resistance following Indonesia's confirmation that it will not make major changes to its 2026 mining quotas. Selby characterises this as a genuine test of Indonesian policy resolve, following weeks of speculation — much of it from short-sellers and Chinese commentary — that Jakarta would loosen restrictions under pressure. That the quotas held, he argues, removes one of the market's clearest downside risks and should force sell-side analysts to keep revising nickel price forecasts higher through the remainder of 2026, following Bernstein's recent move to a small-deficit call for the year.\nOn the supply side, Selby's strongest conviction is around the seasonal decline in Philippine nickel ore output, which historically halves quarter-on-quarter through the third and fourth quarters due to monsoon weather. With Chinese in-process inventories already reduced, this year's seasonal drop is expected to be felt more directly in downstream nickel pig iron and stainless steel pricing. Adding to input-cost pressure, sulphuric acid prices — relevant to HPAL processing — are rising again as conflict in the Gulf region resumes, reversing an earlier easing. Selby points to a cluster of market indicators — stainless steel, NPI, NPI-to-metal discounts and MHP premiums — all sitting only modestly below cycle highs, as evidence the physical market remains tight despite some LME inventory build.\nOn demand, Selby sees EV-related nickel consumption growing at a mid-to-high single-digit pace as the post-2021/22 inventory destocking cycle across nickel, cobalt and lithium comes...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/axOZmc_HrOCuUT8fvrM3doHKVAMJwSrYOlmpD_4jCVw/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzQ1Njk1LzE2OTYy/NjQ2NzgtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}