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Commodity prices provider Platts, a unit of S&P Global Commodity Insight, has launched a daily price assessment for Indonesia’s nickel pig iron (NPI) this week, the company said on Tuesday.
NPI is a major nickel product traded globally and is mostly made in Indonesia.
“The launch is in response to industry demand for greater price transparency on the NPI spot market, in view of the growth in Indonesian primary nickel supply,” it said in a statement. The price assessment was launched on Monday.
Indonesia’s nickel products are mostly of a lower ‘Class 2’ purity grade, compared to the underlying ‘Class 1’ product for the global benchmark nickel contract on the London Metal Exchange.
NPI is typically processed into stainless steel, but the product has become an alternative feedstock in the production of nickel sulphate, a material used in batteries for electric vehicles.
The launch of the NPI assessment complements Platts’s existing line-up of battery metals and stainless steel prices assessments, it said.