Nickel substitutes.

To my knowledge, none exist.

It it the way of the market that if an item gets too expensive, buyers will begin to look for substitutes.

This is true for oil as well.

It is also true that, like oil, as the price of nickel drops, the incentive to find subsitutes will decrease. since substitutes only make sense if they are cheaper than the original.

The nickle story, the steel story, is still very much alive.

"The main difference between now and, say, 10 years ago is that there is no excess capacity in the market" says Jon Anton, a steel economist for Global Insight (in todays WSJ).

And more... "Like many miners, Vale is flush with cash from historically high iron-ore prices and has been looking for new ways to deploy this capital. ... Even with $14 billion earmarked for that purpose, the company hasn't had any success in buying other mining operations."

I love the nickel story.

I love the chromite story.

I love the commodity story.

BK.