Nickel, mainly used as an anti-corrosive in steel alloys, rallied in 2016 on the back of a clampdown on mines in the Philippines which took over as the main supplier to China following an ore export ban in Indonesia in place since 2014.

Nickel price picked as 2017 winnerNickel price picked as 2017 winnerThe market was rocked earlier this month when Indonesia abruptly announced a partial lifting of the ban allowing exports of up to 5.2 million tonnes of nickel ore this year.

In a new report Capital Economics, a London-based independent research house, believes of all industrial metals, the nickel price has the best prospects to improve adding that "the market is tightening [following years of underinvestment in new mines] and it is still too soon to say what the partial lifting of Indonesia’s ban on ore exports will mean for supply."

In addition supply from the Philippines may remain constrained. Final results of an audit of the mining sector in the Asian nation ordered by President Duterte is expected this week.

Some 11 mines have already been shut down for failing to comply to stricter environmental rules and a further 20 are under threat. Capital Economics says ultimately 50% of the country's mining capacity could be closed:

However, there are other sources of supply, notably from New Caledonia, that are chomping at the bit to take market share. In late December, the New Caledonia government approved requests from nickel miners to export over 2 million additional tonnes of ore to China. (The government restricts ore exports in a bid to encourage domestic processing.)
Nickel price picked as 2017 winner
On the demand side Capital Economics estimated growth in 2016 at a robust 6.2%, but the firm warns that China’s stainless steel production have have ran ahead of demand last year. Demand for nickel could get a bump from fiscal stimulus in the US, but given the relatively small global share of US nickel consumption, the impact may be limited.

Notwithstanding the likelihood of slower growth in demand, Capital Economics continues to expect that the market will record another deficit in 2017 putting a floor under prices in 2017.

Capital Economics sees the price of nickel climbing to $11,500 per tonne by the end of the year (that's a 20% jump from today's price), with further upside predicted in 2018. That makes nickel the metal Capital Economics is by far the most bullish about.

The fast-food chain opened 73 restaurants in Russia last year, exceeding its forecast. Of the newly-opened restaurants, 65 are company-owned, Khamzat Khasbulatov, head of McDonald's Russia, told a news conference.

Khasbulatov said the target for new outlets in 2017 did not signify the company was slowing the pace of its expansion.

"(The situation) has not got better or worse, 50 is not a small number, we are just giving more freedom to our partners and time to gather pace," said Khasbulatov.

McDonalds currently has three franchisees in Russia, two of which have been opening its outlets in the Urals and Siberia. Franchisees operate 92 restaurants out of its total of 609.

"The (franchising) program will develop, we are looking for new partners," Khasbulatov said.

He added the company aimed to bring the share of local suppliers to almost 100 percent by the end of 2018 from the current 85 percent and was encouraging suppliers to develop production in Russia - a move likely to shield it from currency swings and any import restrictions.

In 2014 Russia banned many food imports in retaliation to Western sanctions over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis. The food embargo, which is still in place, has driven up prices and gave a boost to the Russian agriculture industry.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Olga Sichkar; Editing by Christian Lowe)

The two companies, Double Data and the National Bureau of Credit Histories, will appear in the case at Moscow’s Arbitration Court.

Double Data collects information on users’ place of work, study, and friends from their social media page in a bid to compile a credit history, according to court documents. The company mines this publicly-available data without permission from Vkontakte or the users’ themselves.

Vkontakte claims that Double Data’s work slows the speed of their site, and is demanding symbolic compensation of one ruble ($0.02).

Double Data’s General Director Maxim Ginzhuk has said that his firm will fight the case, accusing the social network of launching the law suit to eliminate the company as a competitor. The company behind Vkontakte, the Mail.ru Group, recently began to invest in big data analysis software designed to assess credit risk, the Kommersant newspaper reported Tuesday.

With more than 88 million registered users in Russia and 143 million worldwide, Vkontakte remains the most popular social network in Russia, with more than eight times the daily users of leading international social network Facebook.

It is the second popular website in Russia in terms of daily visitors, out ranked only by Russian-language search engine Yandex.