NPI Plant Maintenance: 100-150 Metal Content Tons to be Affected

"Interpreting Global Nickel and Indonesia Stainless Steel Industries: Supply-Demand Dynamics and Outlook"Stainless Steel Industries**

Indonesia produced 117,900 mt (Ni content) of NPI in March, up 3.51% MoM and 23.9% YoY. In Q1, output rose 19% YoY to 353,700 mt in nickel content. Caused by the limited RKAB approval, smelters are still purchasing nickel ore at a high premium. However, tight supply of nickel ore pushed raw material inventory to fall in March. Considering Lebaran in April, the output of high-grade NPI in April is expected to be 121,000 mt in nickel content, a slight increase of 2.66% MoM. If RKAB approval is still slower than expected, NPI output will be influenced in the future.

As of last Friday, the average price of 8-12% high-grade NPI was 954.8 yuan/mtu (ex-factory, including tax), down 3.2 yuan/mtu WoW. Supply side, even though the approved nickel ore quota is increasing, it still takes time for the nickel ore to move from the mine to the smelter. As a result, the current operating rate of NPI producers remains low. Stainless steel and stainless steel scrap prices kept dropping. High-grade NPI is still more cost efficient than stainless steel scrap. The terminal need for stainless steel stayed low, failing to boost the high-grade NPI prices. As a result, it causes a build-up in inventory and is expected to keep NPI prices low.

Shanghai base metals mostly closed with gains in the overnight trading last Friday as the Fed indicated more aggressive measures for countering the inflation. LME metals basically picked up on Friday as well.

In terms of supply, according to research, the supplies of NORNICKEL nickel, nickel briquette, NIKKELVERK nickel were in critical shortage, mainly due to the large price spread between SHFE and LME.

Recently, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has caused many worries in the financial market. With the further aggravation of the situation, both domestic and foreign nickel prices have risen sharply, among which SHFE nickel prices have once again been set a record high.

Shanghai base metals mostly closed with gains on Thursday night. LME metals performed similarly on Thursday.

China imported 4.01 million mt of nickel ore and its concentrate in November, a decrease of 10% from the previous month and a year-on-year increase of 12%, According to General Administration of Customs.

Huayou Cobalt has commissioned the hydrometallurgical nickel smelting project using laterite nickel ore at its PT.HUAYUE NICKEL COBALT recently after completing the equipment installation and debugging work.

Shanghai nonferrous metals closed with mixed performance as the hawkish rhetoric from US Federal Reserve Chair Powell supressed the market, while the November Caixin PMI in China was relatively positive than before.