stainless steel natural gas grill Low prices to pile more pressure on beleaguered nickel miners

Melbourne/Sydney, Reuters-With the influx of cheap ore, global nickel miners are under new pressure to cut costs or shut down production capacity --At a low annual point, analysts believe the recovery is not promising.Earlier this year, Indonesia relaxed its iron ore export ban, and hardline Filipino environmental activists were expelled from the country's mining ministry. Indonesia and the Philippines are increasing shipments of nickel ore.For large Chinese steel mills, nickel ore is a cheaper alternative to refined metals that use nickel ore to increase strength for stainless steel.The new supply comes as markets are already struggling to cope with weak demand and high inventories, and while prices have fallen by 60% since the medium term, many banks have lowered their forecasts2014 80% from their 2007 peak.Citi recently told customers that the first time in 10 years to see a short-term, medium-term or long-term rebound opportunities are very small."The miners have been holding on as long as they can.In terms of cutting costs, they will have little room for maneuver, "said Mark pewan of the Sydney consulting firm AME Group."We need to see some reasonable scale of capacity cuts to restore market prices and confidence.Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy, estimates that more than half of the global nickel industry is losing money.Analysts say high-cost mines include mines in the dominican Republic, Greece, Cuba, Western Australia and New kaledonia.Vale, Brazil, has said it plans to suspend the listing of two established high-tech companies.Canada's mines have been spent this year."Prices have been going on for some time, and our focus during this period is to reduce costs and improve global operational performance," said Cory mcphey, a Vale spokesperson .".New Caledonia is home to three of the world's top cities10 projects, one of the highest cost producers.Christel Bories, CEO of Eramet, France, recently said the loss of its socile Nickel (SLN) business was "unsustainable", while Vale NC, a branch of Vale, Brazil, said, the cost of production in the first quarter was $11,232, well above the LME nickel price of about $8,890.However, the French government has supported the two mines through state loans, aiming to protect jobs.Some mines, such as the Falcondo ferronickel plant in the dominican Republic, withdrew from the market when prices fell last time.Since then, the mine has regained ownership.Analysts said the mines built during the high-priced period could be the first chopping board, while some businesses could stop before the expected closing date.However, one obstacle to the closure is that many mines are run by diversified mining companies that earn most of their income from other minerals.Angela Durante, Wood Mackenzie analyst, said: "In Australia, we see Leinster and the people whose lives are coming to an end in 2017 and 2018, respectively, so actions like this may beBHP Billiton's Leinster mine and Independence Group's Long mine are located in Western Australia.The independent group, which also mined gold and copper, did not comment, but said it wanted to expand its long-term projects.BHP Billiton said Nickel West was not part of its core business portfolio, but Chief Commerce officer Nguyen ud Balhuizen said this month that the miner was still operating Nickel West for value.