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Nickel Demand to Rise 4% a Year, Beating Other Metals, CPM Says

By Claudia Carpenter

Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Nickel demand will rise 4 percent a year through 2013, fastest among the main industrial metals, according to Jeffrey Christian, managing director of commodities researcher CPM Group.

Zinc and aluminum consumption climbed the most from 2001 to 2009 at about 6 percent annually, Christian said in a presentation for a London Metal Exchange conference in London today. Copper led gains in the 1990s at about 2.5 percent a year, he said. The comparison excludes tin.

Nickel for three-month delivery had climbed 60 percent this year in London as of 5 p.m. on Oct. 9, lagging gains by lead and copper.