[SMM Nickel Sulphate Daily Review] February 3: Weak Sentiment in Both Purchasing and Sales, Nickel Salt Prices Decline

On February 3, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price was 31,939 yuan/mt, with the quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate at 31,700-32,800 yuan/mt; the average price pulled back compared to the previous day.

Cost side, affected by market sentiment and weak fundamentals, nickel prices continued their downward trend, leading to a pullback in the immediate production cost of nickel sulphate. Supply side, some nickel salt producers, influenced by expectations of rising raw material costs, still held prices firm, while others had suspended quotations ahead of the Chinese New Year; upstream willingness to sell was relatively weak. Demand side, some producers had already stocked up on raw materials for the Chinese New Year and adopted a wait-and-see approach amid highly volatile nickel prices, showing weak acceptance of high-priced nickel sulphate. Today, the upstream nickel salt smelter's Willingness to Sell Sentiment Factor was 1.9, the downstream precursor plant's Purchasing Sentiment Factor was 2.6, and the integrated enterprise sentiment factor was 2.4 (historical data is available in the database).

Looking ahead, if nickel prices decline further, the cost support for nickel sulphate prices is expected to weaken.

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