Nickel between $18,000 a metric ton and $19,000 a ton is a “fair” level for the company, said Arif Siregar, president director of PT International Nickel Indonesia, the nation’s biggest producer of the metal. “Demand for the metal is picking up mainly from China and Taiwan and that’s helped support the price,” Siregar said in an interview in Jakarta today. The company didn’t have a price forecast, he said. Nickel, used in making stainless steel, has gained 88 percent in London since the end of March as consumption recovers from a slump. The contract dropped 67 percent in the previous 12 months on concern a slowing global economy would hurt demand. PT Inco, as the Jakarta-based company is known, may produce “about 60,000 tons” of nickel in matte this year, Siregar said, without giving details. That compares with 72,400 tons last year. The company said in November last year that output would decline as it cut power consumption to reduce costs, relying only on hydroelectric generating facilities. Nickel for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange rose 1.9 percent to $18,503 a ton at 5:27 p.m. Singapore time. To contact the reporters on this story: Yoga Rusmana in Jakarta at yrusmana@bloomberg.net; Naila Firdausi in Jakarta at nfirdausi@bloomberg.net.

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