[Nickel Sulphate Daily Review] January 7 Nickel Prices Drive Up Cost Expectations, Nickel Salt Prices Rise Significantly

On January 7, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price was 29,810 yuan/mt, with the quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate at 29,500-31,000 yuan/mt. The average price increased significantly compared to yesterday.

Cost side, nickel prices rose sharply driven by strong market sentiment in the non-ferrous metals sector, pushing up the immediate production costs for nickel salts. Supply side, some nickel salt producers, affected by expectations of rising raw material costs, significantly raised their quotations recently. Demand side, after a period of destocking towards year-end, some precursor manufacturers had certain raw material stocking demand, leading to increased price acceptance. Today, the Willingness to Sell Sentiment Factor for upstream nickel salt smelters was 2.0, the Purchasing Sentiment Factor for downstream precursor plants was 2.8, and the Sentiment Factor for integrated enterprises was 2.4 (historical data can be queried by logging into the database).

Looking ahead, some manufacturers have purchasing demand recently. If nickel prices can sustain the upward trend, it may support nickel salt prices from the cost side.

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