Nickel Prices Further Pull Back, Stainless Steel Spot Prices Remain at Low Levels [SMM Nickel Morning Meeting Summary]

1.2Nickel Morning Meeting Summary

Refined Nickel:

Spot Premiums/Discounts: Today’s quotations reflect the contract rollover, with the most-traded contract changing to 2502. The mainstream spot premium quotation range for Jinchuan Nickel was 2,800-3,200 yuan/mt, with an average premium of 3,000 yuan/mt. The quotation range for Russian Nickel was -200 to 200 yuan/mt, with an average premium of 0 yuan/mt.

Futures: In the morning, nickel prices fluctuated downward at low levels, dropping 30 yuan to 124,420 yuan, down 0.02%.

The overall premium for Jinchuan Nickel continued to drop slightly. With increasing supply, short-term premiums are expected to decline further. Spot premiums/discounts for nickel plates of other brands remained largely stable this month. As year-end approaches, overall market transactions were sluggish.

Price Spread With Nickel Sulphate: Today, nickel briquette prices were 123,400-124,050 yuan/mt, down 75 yuan/mt from the previous trading day’s spot price. Nickel sulphate remained at a discount to refined nickel.

Nickel Sulphate:

On December31, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price was 26,379 yuan/mt, with a quotation range of 26,000-26,920 yuan/mt, and the average price remained unchanged from the previous day.

In terms of demand, there were some inquiries and transactions in the market recently, but overall, the nickel salt market was not active. On the supply side, salt plants continued to stand firm on quotes. Overall, with weak demand from both buyers and sellers, nickel sulphate prices are expected to remain stable.

Nickel Pig Iron (NPI):

On December31, the SMM 8-12% high-grade NPI average price was 937 yuan/mtu (ex-factory, tax included), down 0.5 yuan/mtu from the previous working day. Supply side, domestically, high-grade NPI prices fluctuated downward. With traditional smelters facing expanded losses, production motivation weakened, coupled with environmental protection inspections, leading to a slight decline in production. In Indonesia, raw material inventories at NPI smelters remained sufficient. Additionally, some smelters maintained partial profitability, and with weak demand for high-grade nickel matte, the phenomenon of converting high-grade nickel matte to high-grade NPI persisted. Indonesian production is expected to continue growing.

Stainless Steel:

On December31, stainless steel futures prices opened 125 yuan higher MoM. However, due to recent guidance price cuts by stainless steel mills and insufficient raw material price support, spot prices continued to operate at low levels. Current supply remained stable with normal arrivals, but as year-end approaches, downstream purchasing demand weakened, operating rates were low, and market stocking willingness was limited. In the morning, 304 cold-rolled in Wuxi was quoted at 12,950-13,200 yuan/mt, 304 HRC at 12,400-12,500 yuan/mt, 316L cold-rolled at 23,600-23,800 yuan/mt, 201J1 cold-rolled at 7,400-7,700 yuan/mt, and 430 cold-rolled at 7,150-7,450 yuan/mt. At 10:30 a.m., the SHFE SS2502 contract price was 12,925 yuan/mt, with Wuxi stainless steel spot premiums at 195-445 yuan/mt (spot trimmed edge = mill edge + 170 yuan/mt).