MIIT: Average Nickel Price Surged 43.2% YoY in Q1

SHANGHAI, May 5 - According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) disclosure on the non-ferrous market in the first quarter of 2022, the average price of nickel, cobalt and battery-grade lithium carbonate in China was 190,000 yuan/mt, 525,000 yuan/mt and 421,000 yuan/mt respectively, up 43.2%, 54.4% and 456% year-on-year, due to the growth in demand from the new energy industry and the tight supply of lithium resources.

Data show that in the first quarter of 2022, the combined output of ten kinds of non-ferrous metals was 16.17 million mt, up 0.9% year-on-year. Copper, lead and zinc output was 2.644 million mt, 1.181 million mt and 1.655 million mt respectively, up 6.1%, 1.2% and 0.7% year-on-year, while aluminium output was 9.633 million tonnes, down 0.4% year-on-year.

The prices of commodity non-ferrous metals continued to run at a high level in the first quarter, with the average spot prices of copper, aluminium, lead and zinc at 71,672 yuan/mt, 22,187 yuan/mt, 15,440 yuan/mt and 25,548 yuan/mt respectively, up 14.4%, 37%, 0.6% and 15.6% year-on-year. Boosted by the growing demand in the new energy industry and the tight supply of lithium resources, the average prices of domestic nickel, cobalt and battery-grade lithium carbonate in the first quarter were 190,000 yuan/mt, 525,000 yuan/mt and 421,000 yuan/mt respectively, up 43.2%, 54.4% and 456% year-on-year.