SHANGHAI, Jun 24 (SMM) - As of June 24, port inventories of nickel ore in China increased by 283,000 wmt to 5.163 million wmt compared with last week. The total Ni content added by 2,000 mt to 40,600 mt. The total inventory was still at a historically low level. The port inventory of nickel ore across seven major Chinese ports stood at 2.341 million wmt, 333,000 wmt higher than last week. Shipments from the Philippines were gradually recovering. However, due to the impact of the rainy season in the first half of the year, the imports of nickel ore fell short of expectations, which further led to the continuous decline in nickel ore inventory at ports and the limited in-plant inventories in the factories. Previous orders of nickel ores are delivered, and goods are picked up in the factory, hence the port inventory cannot increase. In addition, on the demand side, NPI plants and steel mills purchased on rigid demand in the poor NPI and stainless steel markets, which suppressed the shipments from mines. Upstream and downstream mainly held a wait-and-see sentiment. In the short term, port inventory of nickel ore is expected to increase gradually. However, the overall inventory will still remain low, and the tight supply of nickel ore is difficult to ease in the short term.
