LONDON, April 6 (Reuters) – Nickel dropped 3 percent on Friday on worries about the stainless steel market, while the wider industrial metals complex was pressured by fears of a global trade war. Nickel prices surged 34 percent from early December until mid-February, hitting $14,420 a tonne, the strongest since May 2015, partly due to excitement over potential demand for use in batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). “There’s a lot of EV fever in the market, but let’s not forget that stainless (steel) is still the primary consumer of nickel,” said Oliver Nugent, commodities strategist at ING in Amsterdam. While nickel was rallying, stainless steel prices hardly budged, showing weakness in that market, Nugent added. “When higher prices can’t be passed to the end consumer, that’s concerning. Nickel is our preferred short at these levels and we’re forecasting it to fall below $12,500 by the end of the year.” Nickel was the biggest loser on the London Metal Exchange on Friday with benchmark prices down 1.5 percent to $13,130 a tonne by 1400 GMT.
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