[SMM Daily Review of Nickel Sulphate] August 13: Nickel salt prices remain unchanged from yesterday

On August 14, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index stood at 27,316 yuan/mt, with the quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate at 27,270-27,790 yuan/mt, flat from the previous day.

Cost side, the latest US CPI data further fueled market expectations for interest rate cuts. Although LME nickel pulled back slightly yesterday, the immediate costs for nickel salts rebounded overall recently. Supply side, nickel salt smelters maintained low spot inventory levels, with fewer spot order quotations in recent days. Coupled with raw material cost pressures, smelters continued to refuse to budge on prices. Demand side, some precursor plants still had restocking needs recently, showing active inquiries and improved price acceptance. Today, the upstream nickel salt smelters' sentiment factor was 1.5, downstream precursor plants' purchasing sentiment factor was 3.1, and integrated enterprises' sentiment factor was 1.7 (historical data available in the database).

Looking ahead, the nickel sulphate market is expected to maintain a tight supply-demand pattern in the short term, with nickel salt prices likely to rebound.

[Subscribe to SMM Nickel Research Group reports "China Nickel-Chrome-Stainless Steel Industry Chain Regular Report" and "China Nickel-Chrome-Stainless Steel Industry Chain High-End Report" forthe latest data analysis and market insights on nickel ore, NPI (China + Indonesia), refined nickel, nickel sulphate, chrome ore,ferrochrome, and stainless steel (China + Indonesia)!]