Nickel Market Procurement Intelligence Report

Several macro changes in the dynamics of overall Non-Medical Chemicals Minerals and Gases as well as Nickel procurement trends are poised to change the business practices and procurement thumb rules. Procurement costs for Nickel are highly impacted by an increase in the costs associated with the value chain of Nickel, such as logistics, labor cost and energy. Additionally, outdated assets are also increasing the cost for suppliers.

Customers are expecting service and experience levels which are at par with what ecommerce and consumer sectors of today offer. Moreover, competition keeps intensifying and demand and supply dynamics keep shifting.

Suppliers of Nickel are moving up the value chain - both organically as well as through M&As. Their portfolios are increasingly being diversified with the objective of offering integrated solutions that go beyond just Nickel. Even buyers are engaging vendors who can act as a one-stop solution provider across their geographic footprint. Such strategic engagements can help buyers with savings associated with economies of scale and management of a much smaller supplier base.

Category managers need to take note of the potential of these developments and reassess the changes required in their procurement practices.

As market conditions become more dynamic and procurement practices get more sophisticated, category managers need to be cognizant of the best practices that work for their Nickel category procurement. The report offers a succinct analysis of Nickel procurement best practices.

For example, Buyers should engage with suppliers that have adopted a global delivery model as it reduces buyers' risk. In this model, any disaster/emergency at any operating facility of supplier will result in the work being transferred to a different facility, thereby ensuring continuity of the project and reduced risk for buyers. This model also provides buyers access to skilled labor from across the globe, thereby improving the quality of engineering products provided by the supplier.

Competitive bidding as a cost optimization tool is extremely potent but should be carefully deployed only when there is no significant differentiation among Nickel suppliers.

Buyers should assess the level of adoption of the latest technologies by suppliers to assess cost-saving opportunities and quality that can be provided by the latter. For instance, the adoption of technologies such as cloud computing will enable suppliers to reduce their internal computing hardware requirements for operations such as CAD and CAM. This can, in turn, enable them to reduce their operating costs, thereby suppliers can offer products at lower rates to buyers.

Nickel procurement managers also need to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks that can arise in the supply chain or contracts for Nickel procurement. Some examples include: