MSC Napoli update

Concerns that the grounding of the MSC Napoli had driven up the price of nickel on global markets have now been proven false. The container vessel was in danger of sinking two weeks ago after her hull was damaged in a storm while sailing through the English Channel. Her captain then ordered the ship deliberately grounded on a reef in Lyme Bay, off the coast of Devon, where the crew was eventually rescued and where the stricken vessel still remains.

Among the Napoli’s 2,200 containers was said to be over a thousand tonnes of nickel, an amount that initial reports stated was over twenty percent of the available world inventory. This news, coupled with the threat of a looming strike at a major Canadian mining operation, helped drive the price of nickel sharply up on the London Metals Exchange, to $38,300 US a tonne.

However it has now been reported that the Napoli only carries about 150 tonnes of nickel (owned by Columbus Stainless Steel of South Africa, where the vessel was bound when she was damaged). The price of nickel fell to close at $33,850 US yesterday.

Meanwhile, the first containers from the Napoli are being offloaded onto barges for transport to shore.