SMM Analysis: How Will the Prices of Nickel Briquette Move amid Fierce Competition for Nickel Sulphate Raw Materials?

SHANGHAI, May 19 (SMM) - Affected by the price of the raw material side, the costs at nickel salt enterprises were high, which failed to pass through to downstream. Nickel sulphate manufacturers, whose raw material was dissolving nickel briquette and imported MHP, fell into operation crisis. Especially when prices of nickel briquette were more expensive than nickel sulphate finished products, some nickel sulphate plants sold nickel briquette at lower prices, resulting in the spot premiums of nickel briquette lower than NORNICKEL nickel.

Therefore, how will the prices of nickel briquette move remains a focus of the market. According to SMM data, stainless steel accounts for the largest proportion in primary nickel downstream, followed by the alloy, battery materials and electroplating. As for stainless steel, take the #300 with the most nickel content for example. The use of pure nickel in stainless steel was around 300,000 mt/year from 2016 to 2017, but with the rise in ferronickel output and prices, the use of pure nickel in stainless steel was further reduced. By far, the use of pure nickel as a raw material for stainless steel accounts for only 2%, and only the special steel production line of stainless steel is produced with pure nickel.

In terms of alloys, super heat-resistant alloys and corrosion-resistant alloys are usually used in nuclear power, military, precision instruments, etc. The requirements for raw materials are extremely high, so they usually choose to use Jinchuan nickel plate. In civil cases, NORNICKEL nickel is often chosen as raw materials under a relatively relaxed conditions of use such as resistance, containers, etc., but nickel briquette will not be chosen as a substitute, which mainly because nickel briquette is usually less than NORNICKEL nickel in terms of elemental content.

In summary, the main reasons why nickel briquette is less commonly used in alloys and stainless steels are that it is not as utilised as nickel plates when smelted as a raw material and that it is not as good as nickel plates in terms of elemental content, and that it has a low pure nickel and high impurity content. For the time being, the price difference between nickel briquette and nickel plates is not enough to drive the alloy and stainless steel industries to use nickel briquette in large quantities as a raw material for production.