RE: Nickel3 Sep 2019 07:50
Shipping costs are a major incentive for Chinese looking at RGM:
At the moment, nickel supply from Brazil, where mining giants Vale and Anglo American are the largest producers, has only a relatively small role in helping offset expected shortages following the Indonesian ore export ban recently announced.
"You will also need to consider the shipping costs from South American ports to the biggest consumer – China compared with Indonesia or the Philippines, which are much closer to China," Wenyu Yao, senior commodities strategist at Dutch financial services and insurance group ING told BNamericas on Monday.
Vale's nickel production reached 45,000t in Q2, down 32% year-on-year.
About 3,900t of Vale's mined nickel comes from its Brazilian operation, Onça Puma, where output dropped 30.4% year-on-year. Compared to Q1, output was down 9.3%.
Furthermore, nearly half of Vale's nickel comes from Canada, with a smaller portion produced in the company's operations at New Caledonia.
Wenyu said that last year Canada contributed around 8% of global nickel mine supply and its output has seen a 15% year-on-year decline.
"New Caledonia is helping... but we don't think Canada and Brazil could do much help in the short term in light of the supply gap that Indonesia's ore export ban will cause to the global market," Wenyu added.
Brazil is the world's eight largest nickel producer.