China's NPI and Ferronickel Imports Fell by 10.09% in September

SHANGHAI, Oct 29 (SMM) – China imported 306,500 mt of NPI and ferronickel in September 2021, a decrease of 12.34% month-on-month and 10.09% year-on-year, according to customs data. The cumulative imports from January to September were 2.8 million mt. The total amount of imported NPI and ferronickel in September stood at 47,900 mt of nickel content, a decrease of 8.19% month-on-month and 18.23% year-on-year.

In September, the imports of NPI were approximately 260,000 mt, a decrease of 14.6% month-on-month. And the imports of ferronickel stood at approximately 48,000 mt, an increase of 2.5% month-on-month.

Part of the production line of Delong's Phase II NPI project in Indonesia was shut down in September, due mainly to the failure of the power plant. This reduced the shipments of NPI to China. In addition, the shipments issue from ports improved in September. The import volume was recorded in a timely manner, recovering the import volume to the normal level. Indonesia's new NPI production line has no significant increase.

Indonesia's stainless steel production lines have stable demand for NPI. NPI imports may change little.