During February, nickel prices showed a downward trend, with a drop of nearly 10%. On the supply side, affected by the decline in the prices of both SHFE and LME nickel, the import window opened during February on the improving SHFE/LME nickel price ratio. Combined with downstream demand for the first round of replenishment after the Chinese New Year holidays, customs clearance for seaborne pure nickel was implemented, and the bonded zone pure nickel inventories in February fell 12%.
With regard to domestic pure nickel, the release of domestic new electrowinning nickel production capacity during February increased total output by nearly 5.49% from January. On the demand side, alloy manufacturers have restocked after CNY holidays. But as prices of finished alloy products followed commodities prices down, the profit margins of manufacturers have not yet recovered.
Therefore, manufacturers mainly produced according to orders, and purchased raw materials on rigid demand, leading to lukewarm transactions in the pure nickel spot market during February.
