On July 10, the average price of SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate declined.
Cost side, the implementation of Indonesia’s NPI control measures yesterday, combined with a recovery in macro sentiment, led to a rebound in nickel prices, while spot production costs for nickel sulphate consolidated at lows. Supply side, the tight supply of intermediate products remained unchanged, MHP payables and prices of auxiliary materials such as sulphuric acid stayed high, some nickel salt smelters held expectations for production cuts, but some enterprises released low-cost inventory. Demand side, as nickel prices plunged significantly MoM and some downstream enterprises accumulated certain inventories, downstream stockpiling sentiment was weak, and acceptance of nickel salt prices was relatively low. Today, the Willingness to Sell Sentiment Factor for upstream nickel salt smelters stood at 1.8, the Purchase Sentiment Factor for downstream precursor plants was 2.5, and the sentiment factor for integrated enterprises was 2.4 (historical data can be accessed in the database).
Looking ahead, the stockpiling period in July is expected to shift to the latter part of the month, and attention needs to be paid to the impact of nickel prices and intermediate products on cost support.
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