By Leia Michele Toovey- Exclusive to Nickel Investing News

^[1]Nickel was down US$350 to US$16,650 at India's Multi Commodity Exchange, MCX, on Monday.The benchmark September nickel MNKU8 was down 1.27 per cent at Rs 774.5. Nickel October contract was trading down 0.38 per cent at Rs 796.50 a kg. It opened at Rs 810.80 as compared to its previous closing of Rs 799.50. Nickel futures are taking a support at Rs 781.60.

On Friday, the LME nickel stock was 546 metric tons against the previous of 606 metric tons. Nickel has touched a low of Rs 782 a kg after opening at Rs 786, and last traded at Rs 784.7.

China's stainless steel ^[2] producers are buying less nickel as a result of shrinking stainless demand, and at the same time the companies are making more products with low nickel content. Production of the rust proof metal is likely to rise 10 per cent in 2008 to almost 8 million tonnes, outpacing demand of 7 million tonnes. This is a result of Chinese stainless steelmakers expanding capacity faster than demand growth, depressing prices even as the costs of materials including iron ore and ferrochrome surged to records. The nation's stainless steel capacity is one third larger than its output.

The Cuban nickel industry ^[3] is still operating at below capacity more than three weeks after taking a direct hit from Hurricane Ike. Last week, the Cuban Government reported that capacity was back to par, however, Luis Garcia, Director of the Ernesto Che Guevara plant in Moa Holguin sees it differently. He told a local newspaper, the Ahora, that capacity was gradually being restored since opening last week, but was yet to be fully reached. "We never thought an event of Ike's magnitude would strike. First, we were without water, then the winds took off the roof and rain fell on the controls." The plant lost 12,000 square meters of roofing and walls. Cuba is one of the world's largest nickel producers, at 75,000 tonnes of unrefined nickel per year, and supplies 10 per cent of the world's cobalt.

The ongoing conflict between Norilsk Nickel's ^[4] two biggest shareholders - Interros' Vladimir Potanin and Oleg Deripaska of United Company RusAl, lives on. Late on Sunday evening, Norilsk Nickel announced that three of its subsidiaries may purchase up to 8.6 per cent of its stock.  Two of the subsidiaries, Norilsk Combine and Kolskaya GMK, placed approximately 20.64 billion roubles in Rosbank, while a third subsidiary, OGK-3, "has a right" to place up to 22 billion roubles with "other financial structures".  The cumulative amount of 42.64 billion roubles (US$1.7 billion) would be used to acquire 16.5 million shares in Norilsk Nickel. All three of the subsidiaries are believed to be under the control of Vladimir Potanin's Interros, and therefore the transactions would effectively increase its interest to a controlling stake.

Rusal called the move "a flagrant violation of the rights of minority shareholders".  Interros has essentially moved to increase its stake in Norilsk Nickel without making an obligatory offer to buy out the remaining shareholders. It was also not clear who Interros would get the stock from, or how they managed to pick up stock at an apparent 30 per cent discount.

Norilsk Nickel emphasized that the deal could be carried out without an agreement from its shareholders, "In accordance with the Russian legislation and the regulations of Norilsk Nickel the regulatory bodies of Norilsk Nickel, including the board of directors, are not obliged to consider and have not considered an approval of the said operations". Currently, Interros holds 29.87per cent of the shares of Norilsk Nickel, however, there is speculation that Mr. Potanin actually controls closer to 40 per cent of Norilsk Nickel.