Eve: Nanite Repair Paste commodity market

One thing I didn't cover in my last post on PI was the imminent increase in demand for Nanite Repair Paste. Tomorrow's patch introduces this module:

Modules

• The new Ancillary Armor Repairer (AAR) module has been added to the game to provide more options for active armor tanking.
• The AAR always uses the same cap as a normal (T1/T2/Named) Armor Repper.
• When not loaded with Nanite Repair Paste, the AAR has 3/4 the rep amount as a T1 Armor Repairer.
• When loaded with Nanite Repair Paste, the AAR triples the rep amount (repairs 2.25x a T1 repairer when loaded).
• The AAR has the same cycle time and fittings as T1 reps.
• The Small AAR uses 1 paste per cycle, Medium AAR 4 and Large AAR 8. The AAR can hold 8 cycles worth of paste at a time. Reload time is 1 minute just like an ASB, but the longer cycle time of armor reps means it goes longer between reloads.
• Limited to one per ship.

Thar she blows!

Well that explains some of the recent spike in PI materials.

So let's have a little look at the components and how much they're up over 3 months:
Data chips +49%
Gel-Matrix Biopaste +110%
Nanites +129%

So a strong increase indeed.

Is it sustainable?

Well I think we're going to see a lot more paste used. The new modules obviously use it but there's a second subtler effect. Generally when people pvp they don't bother carrying paste, taking boosters and so on. However if it's in the cargo anyway to fuel the AAR people will use it to repair overheat burn.

Ultimately, as with POS fuel, the market will adjust so that these materials are produced in the quantity that the new market will demand. People will switch over to produce them. But for the medium term I think there may very well be a shortfall. So we will probably see a very small decrease in price after the patch because there's always speculators who cash out immediately but then we may see a sustained increase in price for the mid-term.