[SMM Nickel Sulphate Daily Review] January 27th: High Sentiment to Hold Prices Firm, Nickel Salt Prices Rise

On January 27, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price was 32,884 yuan/mt, with the quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate between 32,350 and 34,200 yuan/mt. The average price rose compared to yesterday.

Cost side, nickel prices continued to fluctuate amid macro sentiment support and policy disruptions in Indonesia. Nickel prices corrected today, but the immediate production cost for nickel salt smelters remained high. Supply side, some nickel salt producers, affected by expectations of rising raw material costs, saw renewed price increases in nickel recently, which stimulated sentiment to hold prices firm. Demand side, due to significant nickel price volatility, some downstream producers adopted a wait-and-see approach, with acceptance of high-priced nickel sulphate still relatively weak, leading to relatively sluggish market transactions. Today, the willingness to sell sentiment factor for upstream nickel salt smelters was 1.9, 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 the stockpiling period before the Chinese New Year approaches, if nickel prices can continue to hold up well, it may support nickel sulphate prices from the cost side.

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