Nickel Market Sees Stable Futures, Tightening Spot Liquidity, and Cautious Trading Amid Price Resistance

In June 2026, China's total sulphur imports amounted to approximately 195,000 metric tons (mt), down 27.3% month-on-month and down 81.1% year-on-year, originated primarily from Canada, South Korea, Japan, the UAE, Brunei, Singapore, and Kazakhstan. China's total sulphur exports amounted to approximately 238 mt, down 56.5% month-on-month, with major destinations including Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam, and North Korea. China's total sulphuric acid imports amounted to approximately 3,000 mt (reference value, subject to final customs data), sourced primarily from Taiwan, China, South Korea, Japan, Germany, and the United States. China's total sulphuric acid exports amounted to approximately 16,000 mt, down 84.5% month-on-month and down 96.0% year-on-year, with major destinations including Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Tanzania, and Togo.

Focused on H1-2026 customs data — a cliff in sulfur imports with a reshuffled source mix; acid exports collapsing under the export ban. Three charts decode the shifts in volume, source and momentum.

[SMM Nickel Flash] On July 20, SMM reported that the high-grade NPI market sentiment factor was 1.99, up 0.02 MoM; the upstream high-grade NPI sentiment factor was 2.07, up 0.01 MoM; and the downstream high-grade NPI sentiment factor was 1.91, up 0.03 MoM. Today's high-grade NPI spot market maintained a tug-of-war between sellers and buyers, with a clear gap in psychological price levels between upstream and downstream, and transactions were generally divergent.