Analysis on the current advantages of Nickel Sulfate Raw Materials in Qingshan High Ice Nickel first Shipping Port [SMM exclusive Analysis]

January 24, 2022: the first batch of high matte products from the Castle Peak Park in Indonesia have been collected at the port and officially shipped back to China. At present, three production lines have been completed in Qingshan Morowali Park. This is the first time that the product has been shipped except the sample since the Qingshan high matte nickel was announced in March last year. Prior to this, Aoyama and Huayou and Zhongwei signed an agreement to supply 75000 tons of high nickel matte per year, with a supply period from October 2021 to October 2022. According to SMM, the total volume of the ship is about 500 physical tons, which will be shipped to China together with NPI.

Is it economical for downstream to produce nickel sulfate from high nickel matte at present?

According to the current SMM internal nickel sulfate production cost formula, the current profit of dissolving nickel beans to produce nickel sulfate (- US $744 / nickel ton) is lower than that of using Indonesia high matte nickel to produce nickel sulfate (US $635 / nickel ton), and the profit of high matte nickel production is also better than that of mainstream intermediate production (- US $411 / ton).

For the downstream manufacturers, the economy of high matte appears, which is helpful to stimulate the upstream and downstream factories to actively invest in the construction of high matte production line. However, at present, the high nickel matte is in the early stage of production (part of the new construction, part of the production stage), and it takes a certain amount of time to release. At present, the raw materials of nickel sulfate are still more dependent on imported nickel beans and wet intermediate products.

It should be noted that the amount of new production line of wet intermediate products is the same as that of high matte nickel. Therefore, in the near future, the usage of nickel beans will remain high, the demand for nickel beans will be difficult to fall, and it may be difficult to change the demand pattern downstream in the short term.

Click to subscribe to SMM China Nickel Industry chain Annual report to master comprehensive and in-depth industry chain data, research information and SMM professional analysis