Nickel Sulphate Prices Slumped in December amid Falling Demand, and Will Head for Further Decline in January

SHANGHAI, Oct 28 (SMM) - According to SMM survey, the spot price of lithium carbonate had risen for ten consecutive days since October 14.

In recent years, the demand for new energy vehicles has exploded, and the installed capacity of lithium power batteries is also increasing year by year.

The prices of battery-grade nickel sulphate were 39,500-41,000 yuan/mt as of Friday, an increase of 650 yuan/mt on the week.

In September, the average price index of domestic ores added 17 yuan/mt.

On October 12, spot prices of stainless steel in Wuxi market dropped more than those in the Foshan market.

Looking into to October, the supply of lead ingots is expected to tighten regionally as primary lead smelters in Yunnan have received a notice of power rationing, and the transportation of battery scrap in Anhui has been restricted due to the pandemic.

Huayou Cobalt issued an announcement on investment that the company plans to jointly build Huashan Nickel-Cobalt with an annual output of 120,000 mt of Ni content and nickel-cobalt hydroxide hydrometallurgy project with Glaucous through its wholly-owned subsidiary Huatuo International Development Pte. Ltd.

LME lead opened at $2,056/mt and rose by 2.34% to $2,098/mt overnight, after hitting the lowest point of $2,042/mt and the highest point of $2,099.5/mt. During the Asian trading hours, affected by the SHFE lead, LME lead fluctuated between $2,050-2070/mt while in the European trading hours,  LME lead hit one-month low amid the increase of US dollar and then rose up due to the increase of SHFE lead. The most traded SHFE 2207 lead contract opened at 14,960 yuan/mt overnight and rose up to 15,195 yuan/mt as the lead ingot warrant inventories declined by 8,000 mt, and finally closed at 15,180 yuan/mt, up 1.71%. The open interest decreased by 5,454 lots from the previous trading day to 44,274 lots.

Technology analyst company CCS Insight said in its latest global market forecast report that 5G mobile technology users will exceed 1 billion in 2022.

Manganese ore import prices differed significantly in May. The monthly average price of Australia lump remained at 62 yuan/mtu, flat MoM.