Can recent rebound in non-ferrous metal prices be sustained? Jenson Ong answers
«So, in nickel itself, of course, we still see continued tightness in terms of the Indonesian ore in particular which is a main supplier or main producer on a global scale for the nickel market,» says Jenson Ong, S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Now, that the big Fed event is behind us, what is the outlook that you have on the non-ferrous metals because after seeing a significant fall from the May 2024 highs, the non-ferrous metal space has rebounded of late, at least from the September 9 lows that we have seen. Do you think the uptrend is sustainable and from here on, we will see a bigger recovery?
Jenson Ong: The non-ferrous metals, of course, looking at the main couple of metals, like let us say nickel, aluminium, copper, for example, in terms of the rebound in prices, of course in the recent months or so, the trend is a lot of supply tightness stemming from the upstream markets of these metals for nickel for example, aluminium, upstream alumina and copper concentrates as well.
So, in nickel itself, of course, we still see continued tightness in terms of the Indonesian ore in particular which is a main supplier or main producer on a global scale for the nickel market.
So, we do see that a rainy weather and also a mining approval delays in Indonesia itself could continue to sustain tightness in the nickel market as a whole. For the copper markets as well, copper concentrates treatment charges on the upstream have continued to be at record lows, although there is some rebound due to a fire at China's Daye copper
