Economical Comparison between MHP with High Nickel Matte

MHP vs High Nickel Matte

First of all, let's look at the supply forecast of global nickel intermediate products. In 2027, the total output is expected to reach 1.64 million metal tons. The base of high nickel matte is relatively low at the beginning. And also, MHP has capacity in New Caledonia, Australia and other countries, so its growth rate will not be so high compared to high nickel matte.

In addition, according to the figure, it can be seen that from 2021 to 2023, high nickel matte will increase the volume fast, and MHP will increase the volume fast as well in the future. The main reason is that the investment and construction period of MHP will be longer than that of high-nickel-matte.

We have also predicted the source of raw materials for nickel sulfate.

From a global perspective, hydro-process intermediates are the main raw materials for the production of nickel sulfate, especially MHP. Because China is the main producer, the proportion of China is relatively similar. At the same time, we can see that high nickel matte has a relatively large increase trend.

However, nickel briquettes/powder still accounts for 7% of the global. The main reason is firstly because of the problem of overseas pricing mechanism. The upstream uses the LME price for settlement, and the downstream settlement also uses the LME price, so its price can be transmitted and acceptable.

Written by SMM Nickel Research, if you have any questions about the nickel market, please don't hesitate to talk with me Fancyli@smm.cn