[SMM Nickel Sulphate Daily Review] Nickel Salt Prices Rose on August 18

On August 18, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price stood at 27,360 yuan/mt, with the quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate at 27,350-27,790 yuan/mt. The average price rose WoW.

Cost side, recent market sentiment was jointly influenced by expectations for US Fed interest rate cuts and nickel's weak fundamentals, with LME nickel prices fluctuating at lows, 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 higher price acceptance. Today, the upstream nickel salt smelters' sales sentiment factor was 1.4, downstream precursor plants' procurement sentiment factor was 3.0, and integrated enterprises' sentiment factor was 1.8 (historical data available in the database).

Looking ahead, the nickel sulphate market's supply-demand pattern is expected to remain tight in the short term, with nickel sulphate prices likely to rebound.

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