World Nickel Supply to Top 37,000 tonnes on Demand

World nickel market will be 37,000 tonnes of oversupply in 2009, according to Sumitomo Metal Mining. The firm expects the production is 1.336 million tonnes and the consumption is 1.299 million tonnes, both of which increases by 5.1% from 2008.

The firm expected as of October 2008 the oversupply is 89,000 tonnes in 2009. The firm expected the demand increases by 8.5% to 1.409 million tonnes due to higher demand in China while the production increases by 13.6% to 1.498 million tonnes.

However, the firm revised the outlook due to very slow demand for special steel and stainless. The new consumption forecast is 7.8% lower than outlook in October 2008 while the production forecast is 10.8% lower than previous outlook.

The firm estimates the world production decreased by 4.2% to 1.271 million tonnes in 2008 from 2007 while the consumption decreased by 3.7% to 1.235 million tonnes. The market was 36,000 tones of oversupply.