4 November 2024 – According to the Mineral and Coal Program Development at the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Indonesia’s nickel reserves could be depleted in just under five years. Nickel and stainless steel scrap prices up in Asia on Monday, 304 prices also climb. US reporting season with positive surprises. And German Finance Minister calls for an end to opportunistic subsidy demands by large corporations.
US reporting season: positive surprises predominate
In the current reporting season in the USA, many companies are exceeding expectations: 77% of S&P 500 companies are reporting higher profits than forecast, on average 7.8% more. The profits of communications service providers and technology companies are growing particularly strongly, with increases of 24.1% and 19.1% respectively. A further 10.7% increase in profits is expected for the fourth quarter, and growth could reach 15% by 2025. This positive outlook is boosting the S&P 500 share index.
German finance minister calls for a rethink on subsidies
The German Finance Minister, Christian Lindner, FDP, has criticized in his much-discussed paper “Wirtschaftswende Deutschland” (Economic Turnaround Germany), to our great delight, among other things, that industrial policy focuses too much on larger companies with the strongest vested interests (such as Intel or Thyssen-Krupp) and neglects small and medium-sized companies.
According to Finance Minister Lindner, the opportunism of large companies to only invest when they can benefit from short-term funding only leads to increased economic policy uncertainty. This opportunistic behavior would ultimately only contribute to companies that benefit from subsidies structurally developing outside the market and then having to demand more and more subsidies in order to survive.
Nickel reserves in Indonesia about to run out soon?
We have already reported on several occasions that Indonesian nickel mining is facing growing problems. More and more challenges are emerging, not only from an environmental point of view, but also in terms of availability.
A few days ago, the Director of Mineral and Coal Program Development at the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Julian Ambassadur Shiddiq, warned of the great concern about the end of Indonesian nickel reserves.
Nickel ore reserves used up in 5 years
The calculation made for this is relatively simple, but clearly shows that Indonesia currently has neither the mining capacity nor the necessary reserves for an annual demand of around 1 billion MT of nickel ore. At the annual demand now forecast, Indonesia’s reserves would be exhausted within 4 to 5 years. Indonesia already has serious difficulties in granting sufficient mining licenses and many nickel smelters have to resort to imports from the Philippines.
Stainless steel and raw material prices rise in Asia
Nickel prices in Asia rose today, Monday. On the SHFE commodity exchange, nickel contracts rose by up to 1.1%. Spot prices for nickel also rose by 0.9% and stainless steel scrap improved by around 1%. These price increases for commodities also had an impact on the 304 – its Chinese spot market price also rose by around 0.4% today.
Latest news
- LME nickel prices rose significantly at the start of trading on Friday
- Call for an end to EU bureaucracy and regulatory madness
- German steel makers already enjoying massive relief on energy costs
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