Nickel is a versatile metal, and its ability to alloy with a range of metals has brought it to the forefront of modern metallurgy. Nickel alloys are used across various applications, such as aerospace & defense, jet engines, heat exchanger, household appliances, electronics, and automotive components. The excellent ductility and malleability of nickel and nickel-based alloys make them adaptable to virtually all methods of cold fabrication. Nickel alloys offer a combination of excellent corrosion resistance, strength, toughness, metallurgical stability, fabricability, and weldability. Nickel alloys are commercially available in a broad variety of product forms including plate, sheet, strip, tubes, pipe, fittings, and forgings. Core competencies of companies are captured in terms of their key developments and key strategies adopted by them to sustain their position in the market.

Visionary leaders are the leading market players in terms of new developments such as product launches, innovative technologies, and the adoption of growth strategies. These players have a broad product offering that caters to most of the regions globally. Visionary leaders primarily focus on acquiring the leading market position through their strong financial capabilities and their well-established brand equity.

Dynamic Differentiators are established players with very strong business strategies. However, they have a weaker product portfolio compared to the visionary leaders. They generally focus only on a specific type of technology related to the product.

Innovators in the competitive leadership mapping are vendors that have demonstrated substantial product innovations as compared to their competitors. The companies have focused on product portfolios. However, they do not have very strong growth strategies for their overall business, when compared with the visionary leaders.

Emerging companies have niche product and service offerings. Their business strategies are not as strong as that of the established vendors. The emerging vendors include the new entrants in the market, emerging in terms of product portfolio and geographic reach, and require time to gain significant traction in the market.