Spot Prices of Pure Nickel Remained Rangebound at High Levels in August

SHANGHAI, Sep 15 (SMM) - In August, the overall spot prices of pure nickel remained rangebound at high levels. Affected by the high futures prices, premiums of Jinchuan and NORNICKEL nickel dropped and maintained a downward trend, which, however, failed to significantly improve the spot trading. Although the rigid demand from the high-temperature alloy sector existed, the overall demand for pure nickel from the alloy sector declined as the terminal orders decreased because of the high nickel prices. The demand for pure nickel from the nickel-based alloy sector lost 4.29%. In addition, the steel mills cut their production in August, and the output of 300-series stainless steel dipped 6.82%. The overall demand for refined nickel fell as a whole.

In September, under the influence of macro factors, nickel prices are back on the upward track. The spot prices still remain high even though the premiums keep falling, arousing a wait-and-see attitude in terminal enterprises. And the weak demand cannot offer enough support to nickel prices. Meanwhile, although the problem of nickel sulphate capacity mismatch is slightly disturbing, the demand for nickel briquette is unlikely to improve as the nickel prices remain rangebound, which hurts the cost efficiency of in-house dissolution of nickel briquette. The inventory of pure nickel is unlikely to drop sharply.