[SMM Analysis] At the Period of Downstream Month-end Purchasing, Nickel Salt Prices Continued to Rise This Week

At the month-end procurement period for downstream, nickel salt prices continued to rise this week

As of Thursday, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price was 27,527 yuan/mt, with the quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate at 27,600-27,800 yuan/mt, and the average price WoW further increased.

Demand side, the procurement period for precursors has arrived, and as the September-October peak season approaches, some producers have seen an increase in precursor orders, leading to a higher acceptance of nickel salt prices; supply side, there is limited spot supply from nickel salt smelters, coupled with high raw material cost pressure, supporting the continuous upward trend in nickel salt quotations. Looking ahead, as it is the procurement period for precursor companies, with current tight spot supply of nickel sulphate, it is expected that nickel salt prices will continue to rise.

Inventory, the upstream nickel salt smelter inventory index decreased from 5.7 days to 4.4 days, and the downstream precursor inventory index decreased from 10.6 days to 9.5 days, indicating a decline in inventories for both buyers and sellers, while the integrated enterprise inventory index decreased from 7.4 days to 7.3 days; in terms of the strength of buyers and sellers, the sentiment factor for upstream nickel salt smelter shipments decreased from 1.5 to 1.3, and the sentiment factor for downstream precursor purchases increased from 3.0 to 3.3, showing that although buyers still have procurement needs, the willingness of sellers to ship goods is weak, and the sentiment factor for integrated enterprises increased from 1.8 to 2.5. (Historical data can be queried in the database)