Pure nickel social inventory continued to grow

According to SMM research, pure nickel inventory in six regions across China stood at 19,660 mt, up 462 mt from January 19. Due to the competitive advantage of nickel briquette over nickel plate in terms of prices last week, some traders imported a small amount of nickel briquettes from the bonded area into the domestic spot market. As a result, the majority of accumulated stocks consist of nickel briquettes. With the rise in market prices, nickel prices reached a recent high, impacting the downstream purchasing sentiment. As a result, the atmosphere for spot transactions weakened, leading to a slight increase in inventory last week.