Nickel Calculator – Work Out the Material Value of Nickel
Material Value · Nickel
14.54 €
1,000.00 g × 1 × 0.0145 €/g = 14.54 €
Buy-back price: The amount a dealer or refinery actually pays. This is typically 2–10% below the melt value, as processing costs and margin are deducted.
Two thirds go into stainless steel
What is called "stainless" usually owes that property to a share of nickel alongside the chromium. The common grade for cutlery, sinks and process equipment contains nickel at a double-digit percentage; it is often called 18/10, after its chromium and nickel content.
This ties the nickel price to stainless steel production, and that in turn to construction, plant engineering and consumer goods. China is by far the largest producer, and news about Chinese steel mills moves the nickel price immediately.
For the material value of an object this means: a stainless steel part is not a nickel part. It contains nickel, but the smaller share, and the rest is iron and chromium. This calculator values nickel; for a piece of stainless steel you would need to know the nickel content of the grade.
Battery demand has been added
In the cathodes of common traction batteries, nickel is the most important metal by quantity, and the trend has been towards higher nickel shares, because they allow more energy per kilogram. This has created a second, fast-growing source of demand alongside stainless steel.
However, the battery industry needs a different quality. Not every nickel that is mined is suitable for it; refining it into battery-grade material is a separate step. As a result the market in effect splits into two segments, whose prices can develop differently.
At the same time there are countertrends: battery types without nickel are gaining ground, especially where range matters less than cost and service life. How this will affect demand is open — and we do not presume to make a forecast here.
The most restless market among the industrial metals
Nickel is known for violent swings. Supply comes from a few countries, above all Indonesia, the Philippines and Russia, and political decisions there — such as an export ban on unprocessed ore — act directly on the world market.
How far this can go was shown in March 2022: the nickel price rose by over a hundred per cent within hours, because a large short position had to be closed out. The London Metal Exchange suspended trading and cancelled trades — an unusual step in the exchange's history.
Anyone reading the price history should recognise such days for what they are: market mechanics, not supply and demand. In the performance calendar they appear as a single extreme cell between pale neighbours, and anyone who comes across one should look up the reason.