Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
Russian metals producer Nornickel will re-launch one of the two furnaces at its flagship Nadezhda Smelter in early August after major repairs that affected production plans, a company spokesman told Reuters on Friday.
The completion of repairs suggests that the company has found ways to overcome problems caused by Western sanctions, which had previously delayed the import of necessary equipment.
Nornickel, the world’s largest palladium producer and a major producer of refined nickel, is not subject to direct Western sanctions, but some Western companies are avoiding dealings with it in what Moscow calls “voluntary self-sanctions.”
Sanctions have constrained Nornickel’s development. As a result, the company had to postpone repairs of one of the two furnaces at Nadezhda, a key production asset, for two years.
The 30 billion rouble ($340 million) repairs included the replacement of the smelting unit and required sophisticated equipment, which was previously sourced mostly from Western countries. Nornickel did not disclose its new equipment suppliers.
Norilsk, like many other Russian companies, is pivoting to China and other non-Western countries in search of needed technology.
Nornickel stated in January that it expected a further decline in nickel and palladium output this year, due to adverse geopolitical risks and the furnace repair.
In April, Washington and London prohibited metal-trading exchanges from accepting new aluminum, copper, and nickel produced by Russia and barred the import of these metals into the United States and Britain to disrupt Russian export revenue.
Nornickel confirmed its full-year forecast in April, although it did not provide estimates on the impact of new sanctions on its production.
(By Anastasia Lyrchikova; Editing by Gleb Bryanski and Susan Fenton)
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