Nickel production in Russia was largely undisrupted in March despite the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to analytics platform Savant.

Smelting in the region of the conflict was split between the 22ktpa Pobuzhskiy ferronickel smelter in Ukraine and Russian producer Norilsk Nickel's 200ktpa Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant in Russia, with Savant recording disruptions to activity only at Pobuzhskiy.

Global nickel smelting increased in March, driven by an uptick in Chinese activity following the conclusion of the Winter Olympics, Savant said. Its global dispersion index for nickel, a measure of capacity-weighted activity levels observed at smelter sites, rose to an average of 47.3 in March from 41.6 a month earlier, while still trending at below 50, which denotes average levels of activity.

The month-on-month increase in nickel smelting activity was mainly caused by an increase in stainless steel demand in China, where the regional NPI dispersion index surged to 55.4 in March from 37.8 in February. Conversely, the regional index for Europe and Africa fell back to 39.8 in March from 46.3 in February, according to Savant.

Savant was created by geospatial intelligence company Earth-i and infrastructural data provider Marex. It uses satellite surveillance to cover 90pc of global smelting activity for both copper and nickel.