Russia Sanctions, and Nickel

The London Metals Exchange halted nickel trades today after prices approximately tripled. Nickel is a metal that surrounds us in our daily lives, primarily as an alloy component in stainless steel: bridges, cutlery, appliances.

But nickel’s importance in our future lives may be even greater still. While not as flashy – at least, before current events in Europe started pushing commodity prices higher – as lithium and cobalt, nickel is every bit as important for green tech. Nickel’s ubiquity and commonplace role in our lives actually helps hide its importance. When was the last time you read a think-piece on nickel supply chains?

As we look toward technologies of tomorrow, their positive impacts have to be weighed against the variety of new and growing inputs going into goods such as electric vehicles; you might be able to detach your economy from a handful of problematic energy exporting countries only to open yourself up to dozens of smaller, more precarious trade relationships.

While we still believe strongly in their mission, with recent events in Ukraine we are asking our subscribers to consider supporting a charity focused on relief efforts there. There are many good ones to choose from, but one in particular we are supporting is the Afya Foundation.

They collect money and health supplies for underserved communities in the world, and have begun delivering non-combat support to refugees and population centers in Ukraine. We hope that those who can, join us.