On February 24, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price was 31,602 yuan/mt. The quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate was 31,400-32,500 yuan/mt, with the average price flat from the previous day.
Cost side, nickel prices rose today, driven by recent tailings landslides at Indonesian industrial parks and fluctuations in US tariff policies, pushing up the immediate production cost of nickel sulphate. Supply side, production at nickel salt smelters recovered after the holiday, and quotations increased due to the rebound in nickel prices. Demand side, some producers had not fully consumed their pre-holiday raw material inventory and had not yet started purchasing. Today, the upstream nickel salt smelters' willingness to sell sentiment factor was 1.8, the downstream precursor plants' purchasing sentiment factor was 2.4, and the integrated enterprises' sentiment factor was 2.3 (historical data can be queried by logging into the database).
Looking ahead, market trading sentiment is expected to rebound after the holiday, while attention should also be paid to the support for nickel sulphate prices from the cost side due to nickel prices.
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