[SMM Nickel Sulphate Daily Review] December 10: Weak Procurement Sentiment, Slight Decline in Nickel Salt Prices

On December 10, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price was 27,226 yuan/mt. The quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate was 27,455-27,585 yuan/mt, with the average price slightly lower than yesterday.

Cost side, ahead of the US Fed interest rate cut meeting, overall market liquidity was cautious, and LME nickel prices pulled back, leading to a slight decrease in the immediate production cost for nickel salt smelters. Supply side, the recent rebound in nickel prices and the resulting cost rise prompted some enterprises to have a tendency to raise quotations. However, due to certain expectations of ample raw material supply in the market, upstream efforts to hold prices firm have not yet translated into downstream acceptance. Demand side, as some producers still have raw material inventory, recent nickel sulphate procurement sentiment has been relatively sluggish. Transactions this month are expected to be relatively scattered. Today, the upstream nickel salt smelter's Willingness to Sell Sentiment Factor was 1.8, the downstream precursor plant's Procurement Sentiment Factor was 2.8, and the integrated enterprise sentiment factor was 2.7 (historical data can be queried by logging into the database).

Looking ahead, the pullback in downstream demand is expected to exert some pressure on prices. However, if nickel prices rebound further, it may provide some support to production costs and boost nickel sulphate prices.

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