Nickel Sulphate Traded at Lows on High Supply

SHANGHAI, Apr 17 (SMM) - Last Friday, quotes of battery-grade nickel sulphate were 34,900-35,800 yuan/mt, down 600 yuan/mt WoW. SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate price index was 35,791 yuan/mt, down 256 yuan/mt WoW.

Last week, prices of nickel sulphate trended lower than the level before the Chinese New Year on shrinking demand. Due to the mismatch between supply and demand caused by the precursor companies’ production cuts, nickel sulphate prices cannot improve in the short term. Nickel sulphate inventory held by nickel salt plants stood high as the downstream companies were not active in picking up spots. The companies had to cut their quotes to ship under the huge pressure from elevated inventory.

Nickel sulphate demand from the ternary precursor enterprises did not grow last week. The average operating rate of the ternary precursor companies stood at about 30%-60%, and the enterprises constantly reduced their purchase prices. The demand for nickel sulphate can barely grow in the short term, thus the nickel sulphate manufacturers will reduce their production. Nickel sulphate prices are expected to fall further to 34,500-35,500 yuan/mt this week.