Anglo American’s sale of its Brazilian nickel business to China’s MMG Ltd is a corporate win-win. Anglo gets to deliver on its promise to shareholders to simplify its portfolio and pockets up to $500 million.
MMG, which is already a major producer of copper, cobalt and zinc, gets to diversify into another metal and expand its geographic footprint into Brazil. It is also buying into the one part of the nickel market that is showing signs of price resilience amid a glut of over-supply.
But it’s not such good news for Western countries looking to escape China’s tightening grip on the global nickel supply chain. Chinese companies already control around 75% of refining capacity in Indonesia, which has rapidly emerged as the world’s largest supplier. And with two other Western producers looking to offload their nickel operations due to low prices, China’s market dominance could yet grow further.
For the rest of this column: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/chinas-grip-global-nickel-supply-tightens-with-anglo-sale-andy-home-2025-02-24/#:~:text=The%20discount%20to%20the%20LME,of%20product%20mix%20in%20Indonesia.