[SMM Analysis] Battery Grade Nickel Sulfate is expensive or difficult to support when the demand of Automobile Enterprises is weak

SMM4, 18 March:

(recent average price of battery grade nickel sulfate)

In March, battery grade nickel sulfate suffered the impact of the epidemic, the market transaction price has been generally lower than the cost, nickel sulfate plant under serious pressure. The price of battery grade nickel sulfate showed an upward trend in April. According to SMM research, orders and transactions of nickel sulfate plants this month have improved compared with the previous month.

Looking back this week, there was a clear upward trend in battery-grade nickel sulfate prices, with most nickel sulfate plants saying April orders were full or inventories were bottomed out. Compared with the previous month, nickel sulfate manufacturers are significantly less willing to ship. SMM believes that due to the shadow of the epidemic, the increase in production of nickel sulfate plants in April is not obvious, most manufacturers maintain production in March, and two nickel sulfate plants in North China stopped production this month is expected to reduce the production of battery-grade nickel sulfate products 4500-6000 tons, while the downstream former body plant increased production in April, the demand for nickel sulfate increased compared with the previous month, resulting in a decline in battery-grade nickel sulfate stocks and a rise in battery-grade nickel sulfate prices.

With regard to downstream requirements:

Foreign market: although foreign countries are affected by the epidemic, some car enterprises have stopped production, but the transmission of the impact on the former body factory under the weak demand of car enterprises has a lag of about 2 months. Some former body factories said the April production was an order received before the outbreak abroad in March. As a result, the market demand for battery grade nickel sulfate increased before April. SMM expects former body factories to feel the impact of foreign orders after mid-May.

Domestic market: although China has a subsidy policy for new energy vehicles, compared with last year, the current subsidy policy is consistent with the policy after the subsidy transition period in June last year, and coupled with the impact of this year's epidemic, overall demand is expected to be better than that in the second half of last year.

To sum up, the price of battery grade nickel sulfate in April may continue to strengthen, but combined with downstream demand and the impact of the epidemic at home and abroad, SMM predicts that the price of battery grade nickel sulfate in the future is high or difficult to support.

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