On September 25, the SMM battery-grade nickel sulphate index price was 28,047 yuan/mt, with the quotation range for battery-grade nickel sulphate at 28,100-28,300 yuan/mt; the average price increased from the previous day.
Cost side, a copper mine incident drove a broad rise in nonferrous metals yesterday, and LME nickel prices rose, pushing up the immediate production cost for nickel salt. Supply side, nickel salt smelters maintained low inventory levels, spot order availability in the market was limited, and coupled with raw material cost pressure, this strongly supported nickel salt smelters' quotations. Demand side, approaching the month-end stockpiling period, some manufacturers had recent procurement needs, and price acceptance improved. Today, the upstream nickel salt smelters' Willingness to Sell Sentiment Factor was 1.7, the downstream precursor plants' Purchasing Sentiment Factor was 3.3, and the integrated enterprises' Sentiment Factor was 3.0 (historical data is available in the database).
Looking ahead, as it is the month-end procurement period, nickel sulphate supply is generally tight, and nickel salt prices are expected to have further upside room.
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