On August 21, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price was 27,418 yuan/mt, with the quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate between 27,450 and 27,790 yuan/mt; the average price increased slightly from the previous day.
Cost side, recent market fluctuations were influenced by expectations for US Fed interest rate cuts and nickel's weak fundamentals, with LME nickel prices fluctuating at lows, leading to a pullback in the immediate cost of nickel salt; supply side, nickel salt smelters maintained low spot inventory levels, with few spot order quotations recently, coupled with raw material cost pressure, supporting nickel salt quotations; demand side, some precursor plants had restocking needs recently, showing active inquiries and increased price acceptance. Today, the upstream nickel salt smelter sales sentiment factor was 1.5, the downstream precursor plant procurement sentiment factor was 3.0, and the integrated enterprise sentiment factor was 1.8 (historical data is available in the database).
Looking ahead, the nickel sulphate market supply-demand pattern is expected to remain tight in the short term, and nickel salt prices are anticipated to rebound further.
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