On January 21, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price was 33,215 yuan/mt, with the quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate between 32,550-34,200 yuan/mt; the average price pulled back compared to yesterday.
Cost side, nickel prices continued to fluctuate amid a tussle between fundamentals and expectations, but the immediate production cost for nickel salt remained high. Supply side, some nickel salt producers, affected by expectations of rising raw material costs, still held a strong sentiment to hold prices firm. Demand side, as nickel prices pulled back compared to early January, some downstream producers adopted a wait-and-see approach, showing relatively weak acceptance of high-priced nickel salt, leading to relatively sluggish market transactions. Today, the willingness to sell sentiment factor for upstream nickel salt smelters was 2.0, the purchasing sentiment factor for downstream precursor plants was 2.7, and the sentiment factor for integrated enterprises was 2.4 (historical data can be queried by logging into the database).
Looking ahead, as it is the stockpiling period before the Chinese New Year, if nickel prices can continue to hold up well, it may provide cost support for nickel salt prices.
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