[SMM Daily Review of Nickel Sulphate] August 15, nickel salt prices rose

On August 15, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price stood at 27,331 yuan/mt, with the quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate at 27,300-27,790 yuan/mt. The average price rose slightly from the previous day.

Cost side, US PPI data dampened market expectations for interest rate cuts, and LME nickel prices further declined yesterday, leading to a pullback in immediate nickel salt costs. Supply side, nickel salt smelters maintained low spot inventory levels, with fewer spot orders quoted recently. 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 increased price acceptance. Today, the sentiment factor for upstream nickel salt smelters was 1.5, while downstream precursor plants' purchasing sentiment factor was 3.1, and integrated enterprises' sentiment factor was 1.8 (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.

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