Prices of Battery-Grade Nickel Sulphate Rise Last Week Thanks to Growing Demand

SHANGHAI, Feb 13 (SMM) - Quotes of battery-grade nickel sulphate were 39,000-39,800 yuan/mt last Friday, up 900 yuan/mt from the previous Friday. SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index was 38,637 yuan/mt last Friday, up 544 yuan/mt from the previous Friday. Last week, the prices of nickel sulphate continued to rise. The reasons are as follows. 1. Electrodeposited nickel projects that use nickel sulphate as raw materials successfully yielded some finished products. The enterprises have begun to restock nickel sulphate on a large scale. It is expected that nickel sulphate demand from electrodeposited nickel capacity will be released in a large amount this year. 2. This move made many ternary material manufacturers to worry about the future supply of raw materials, so they became more willing to restock and made inquiries frequently. On the other hand, nickel salt factories sharply reduced the production in January due to shrinking demand. Chinese nickel sulphate output in January stood at 31,200 mt in metal content, down 16.99% MoM. Nickel sulphate companies generally carried low in-plant inventories of spots. Hence the overall nickel sulphate supply was tight. 3. The nickel salt factories held their prices firm amid high costs and the rapid fall in nickel sulphate prices earlier. SMM presumes that the nickel sulphate prices are more than likely to soar owing to the producers’ high costs and the booming demand from electrodeposited nickel sector. To sum up, nickel sulphate supply will remain tight this week, because spot nickel sulphate inventories are almost all sold out and the demand for nickel sulphate brought about by the electrodeposited nickel companies keeps growing. Prices of nickel sulphate are expected to move between 39,800-41,000 yuan/mt this week.