This week, nickel salt prices rose slightly, while market transactions remained relatively sluggish.
As of December 27, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price stood at 26,379 yuan/mt, with battery-grade nickel sulphate quoted between 26,000-26,920 yuan/mt. The average price rose slightly by 10 yuan/mt WoW.
Based on the current market situation, the overall fundamental structure showed no significant changes compared to last month. In terms of supply, nickel salt smelters' inventory levels decreased slightly WoW, and spot supply in the circulation market remained relatively tight. Due to losses and the impact of the year-end holiday, nickel salt smelters maintained firm sentiment in their quotations, with coefficients staying at last week's level. On the demand side, this week marked a traditional procurement period for nickel salts, with some inquiries from precursor plants. However, overall market activity remained low. Given the firm pricing stance of nickel salt smelters, most precursor plants opted to stay on the sidelines. In the short term, supply and demand are expected to remain weak on both sides, with insufficient driving forces for nickel sulphate prices to move upward or downward. Nickel sulphate prices are likely to remain stable in the near future.
This week, cost support for nickel sulphate continued to strengthen.
From a cost perspective, MHP has passed its procurement period this week, and market activity was relatively weak, with coefficients remaining at last week's level. High-grade nickel matte, due to its high costs, left upstream producers with little incentive to make concessions, keeping coefficients temporarily stable. LME nickel prices rose slightly this week, leading to a slight increase in costs for nickel salt smelters. Currently, nickel salt smelters producing nickel sulphate using yellow slag and MHP are still facing losses, with profit margins at -9.0% and -3.1%, respectively. However, smelters using high-grade nickel matte to produce nickel sulphate have achieved profitability, with a current profit margin of 1.1%.
