Nickel — A Complete Market Guide (2026)

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0200

Data as of 6 July 2026. Prices are quoted as multi-year and full-year averages, not a single day’s snapshot, so this report stays useful over time. Reserves, production splits, balances, and historical series are estimates from agency data, rounded for clarity. This report is for information only and was prepared with AI assistance — see the disclaimer at the end.

Nickel is the metal that makes stainless steel stainless — and, more recently, the energy-dense heart of the nickel-rich batteries that power long-range electric vehicles. No major metal market has been remade as fast or as completely as the nickel market: in a single decade, Indonesia went from ore exporter to producer of roughly two-thirds of the world’s mined nickel, a Chinese-built processing complex rewrote the cost curve, and the London nickel market broke so badly in 2022 that the exchange cancelled billions of dollars of trades. This report is the free, big-picture primer on how the nickel market actually works — where it comes from, who processes and buys it, how its price is set, and which economic regimes favour it. For the company-level data behind the charts — every producer screened by production, resources and cost — go to Metal Pilot.

Nickel on Metal Pilot Blog

Nickel — A Complete Market Guide (2026)