Re china this quote represents to me plain propaganda: "Between now and next year, however, this demand is scheduled to slow considerably, with China — the world's biggest market for the crucial alloy metal — slowing its appetite by up to 75% from 2010 growth levels" And need I say, a falsehood. Drop in demand for nickel by 75% would mean that China would practically close down, not producing steel. I have been reading about China slowing down for a few years now and in each of those years no such thing happened. What happened on occasion is a slow down in growth (i.e. instead of 10% growth per year it dropped to 9 or so ) and in others actually rose, so 75% drop in any major metal's usage is illogical and simple disinformation. Most of those defamatory comments have been from the folks down south of us to deflect from local problems. Just to keep the record straight, Ed.