Table 11.-Natural gas liquids 1 used as refinery input in the United States, by Bureau of Mines refinery district and by month

(Thousand barrels)

1 Comprised of plant condensate (including imports), natural gasoline, LPG, and isopentane.

Nickel production in the United States and other parts of the world in 1971 was little changed from that of 1970, but there was an apparent surplus of approximately 150 million pounds of nickel in world markets. The surplus was caused by an exceptionally low level of industrial activity in the United States, in European countries, and in Japan. It dampened some plant expansion work and postponed a few nickel plant construction projects. Canadian producers closed some higher cost underground nickel mines. Nevertheless the effect of the surplus on the whole of the nickel industry was measurably less than the proportionate imbalance between supply and demand.

At the beginning of the year, domestic merchant and scrap nickel prices were compatible with sales prices quoted by primary nickel producers. In the last half of the year, however, scrap and merchant nickel prices trended downward as the surplus weighed on the market.

Domestic nickel consumption was about 17 percent less than in 1970. Most of the decrease was in the use of nickel in superalloys, but less nickel in stainless and alloy steels and in the nickel alloys was also responsible. Consumption decreased 128,816 tons in 1971, compared with the 155,719 tons consumed in the U.S. markets in 1970.

to

There was no significant change in the pattern of nickel markets in 1971 compared with the 1970 pattern. As in the past, by far the largest part of the nickel consumed in the United States was used in

stainless steels. Producers of consumer and institutional metal products, producers of machinery and transportation equipment, and the automotive industry accounted for more than 40 percent of the nickel end-use categories.

International Nickel Company of Canada Ltd. (INCO) estimated free-world nickel consumption in 1971 at 825 million pounds, compared with the 975 million pounds used in 1970. Consumption of nickel in the Communist countries apparently was at about the same level as in 1970.

Legislation and Government Programs. -According to the July-December 1971 Statistical Supplement, Stockpile Report to the Congress prepared by the General Services Administration, 49,410 short tons of nickel plus cobalt was in the defense materials inventory as of December 31, 1971. Of this quantity, 38,857 tons was in the national stockpile; 9,404 short tons was held for the U.S. Mint; and 1,149 tons was in the Defense Production Act (DPA) stocks. The U.S. Department of Commerce progressively reduced the requirements for nickel to be set aside for defense purposes from 20 percent of the average monthly shipments during the last 6 months of 1968 to 15 percent of the average monthly shipments in that period. The nickel strategic stockpile objective was reduced from 55,000 short tons to zero in February; however, the Congress did not enact the laws necessary to dispose of the excess nickel.