Nickel Metal DNA™
· Atomic #28 · ₹1,317.73/kg today
Still mostly a stainless-steel metal, despite years of headlines making it sound like it belongs entirely to the EV battery story — and the metal behind one of the most chaotic single weeks any exchange on this site has seen.
Nickel DNA Profile
Each dimension below is either computed live from data this site already tracks, or a manually researched figure with its own source — see how these are calculated.
How is this calculated?
Computed from the 30-day price change already stored in this site's own price history: score = 50 + (30-day % change × 2), clamped to 0–100. A metal flat over 30 days scores 50; every 1% of 30-day move shifts the score 2 points either way.
How is this calculated?
The standard deviation of daily % price changes over the last 10 trading days, scaled ×20 and clamped to 0–100. A purely descriptive measure of recent swing size, not a positive or negative signal on its own.
How is this calculated?
The single largest producing country's share of reported global production (excluding the "Other countries" residual bucket), taken directly from the USGS-sourced figures already powering /metal-reserves. Higher = more concentrated in one country.
How is this calculated?
Summed reported reserves ÷ summed reported annual production, across only the countries USGS reports both figures for (same commodity, same units — never summed across commodities). Scaled: 40+ years of reserve life scores 100, scaled down linearly below that.
How is this calculated?
Manually researched from each metal's primary industry association (see each metal's Sources section) — not computed. Scored as 100 minus the largest single demand sector's share of total demand, so a metal with no single dominant buyer group scores higher than one dependent on one sector.
Source: Natural Resources Canada, "Nickel Facts" (Wood Mackenzie data) — view
Scientific Identity
- Symbol
- Ni
- Atomic Number
- 28
- Category
- Industrial Metals
Source: IUPAC Periodic Table of the Elements. Further physical/chemical properties (density, melting point, electron configuration) are planned for a future update — not shown until individually verified per metal.
Stainless Steel's Backbone
Stainless steel remains the largest single use for nickel by a wide margin, even as EV battery chemistries (nickel-rich cathodes) have grown fast enough to reshape expectations for future demand — the two markets pull on the same metal for very different reasons.
The Week the Market Broke
In March 2022, a short squeeze more than doubled nickel prices within hours, forcing the LME to suspend nickel trading for the first time in decades and cancel a full day of trades — still one of the most debated episodes in modern metals-market history.
Indonesia Rebuilt the Battery-Nickel Map
Indonesia's rapid build-out of High Pressure Acid Leach (HPAL) processing plants — a technology that lets lower-grade nickel ore be refined into the battery-grade nickel EV makers actually need — has been one of the more consequential supply-chain shifts in any metal tracked here, turning a country once known mainly for stainless-steel-grade ore into a major battery-materials supplier within the space of a few years.
Supply Snapshot
Real, USGS-sourced production shares — the same data behind this metal's Geographic Concentration score above. Full breakdown: Metal Reserves →
Demand Mix
Sourced from Natural Resources Canada, "Nickel Facts" (Wood Mackenzie data) (2024 data) — view source.
Did You Know?
Indonesia's rapid rise as a nickel producer and processor over the past decade has reshaped global supply more than almost any other single-country shift in this dataset — despite Indonesia not being one of this site's 22 tracked countries.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nickel Metal DNA™ is MetalsCost's intelligence profile combining scientific identity with market, supply and demand indicators — each indicator is either computed from this site's own stored price and reserves data, or a manually researched, cited figure. See the methodology page for exactly how.
Nickel's overall score of 40/100 is a simple average of the individual dimensions currently scored for it below — click any dimension's "Why?" for its exact formula and source.
Indonesia accounts for 66.7% of global nickel production, per USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries — see the full production breakdown.
The Nickel price in India today is ₹1,317.73 per kilogram as of October 16, 2026. See the live price and chart.
MetalsCost Metal DNA™ is an informational and analytical indicator. It is not investment advice, a price target, or a recommendation to buy or sell any commodity or financial instrument. See the methodology page for data sources and calculation details.
