The fundamentals of ferronickel are under pressure, and transactions are sluggish. Market prices will remain weak in the short term [Daily Review of NPI]

SMM reported on July 3,

      that on July 3, the average price of SMM 8-12% high-grade NPI was 908.5 yuan/mtu (ex-factory, tax included), down 1.5 yuan/mtu from the previous working day. Supply side, domestically, nickel ore prices in the Philippines continued to fluctuate upward, resulting in severe losses for domestic smelters. With weakened production incentives, a decline in production is expected. In Indonesia, nickel ore premiums saw a slight decrease, alleviating smelters' losses to a limited extent. However, low finished product prices have led some smelters to reduce their production loads, resulting in a weakening of production. Demand side, stainless steel has entered the traditional consumption off-season, and the spot price of stainless steel has not shown significant improvement. A decline in stainless steel production is expected, leading to a weakening in demand for high-grade NPI. Additionally, as long-term agreements from downstream steel mills have already met part of the demand, spot order purchases in the market have been sluggish. In the short term, the price of high-grade NPI is still under pressure.