Trump makes Monchegorsk great again

It is not only in Kremlin smiles are wide after Donald Trump won the U.S. Presidential elections last Tuesday. For Norilsk-Nickel, one of the world’s largest producer of nickel and copper, Trump’s victory brings in cash. 

From Tuesday to Friday last week, copper prices peaked to all-year high, up 13 percent on the London Metal Exchange. 

In Monchegorsk, south of Murmansk, that is good news. The smelter in town produces some 60,000 tons of copper annually. Over the last two years, copper prices have dropped significantly, until they surged back following the results of the presidential elections. 

Also nickel prices got a boost after Trump’s stunning victory, climbing nearly 7 percent the day after the elections. At $11,560 per tonne, nickel prices hit a 2016 high.

High prices of nickel benefits the mining town of Zapolyarny and the smelters in the towns of Nikes and Monchegorsk in the Murmansk region. The company that operates the mines and smelters, Norilsk-Nickel, is the biggest tax contributor in the region in addition to providing thousands of jobs.