Monthly Nickel Market Report Jan 2018

Contents

Abstract 1
1 Company news 1
1.1 Guorun Metal Group halts ferronickel production 1
1.2 Xuhong Machinery closes ferronickel production 1
1.3 Lutai Special Steel halts ferronickel production 1
2 Chinese market review 1
2.1 Prices for nickel cathodes moves up again 1
2.2 Ferronickel prices continuously goes up 2
2.3 Prices for nickel sulfate rises up 3
2.4 Middle grade lateritic nickel ore up further while high grade price up 3
3 International market review 4
3.1 LME nickel prices moves up further 4
3.2 Prices for Philippine lateritic nickel ore moves up further 4
4 Production and stocks data 5
4.1 Chinese nickel cathode output up by 5.4% MOM in January 5
4.2 Chinese ferronickel output down by 20.8% MOM in January 5
4.3 Chinese nickel sulfate output up by 5.4% MOM in January 6
4.4 Chinese ferronickel smelter lateritic nickel ore stock down by 11.1% MOM in January 6
5 Analysis on Import and export data 7
5.1 China's refined nickel and nickel alloy imports up by 64.8% MOM in December 2017 7
5.2 China's ferronickel imports down by 6.4% MOM in December 2017 8
5.3 Chinese lateritic nickel ore imports down by 17.5% MOM in December 2017 9
5.4 China's nickel hydrometallurgy intermediates imports down by 46% MOM in December 2017 11
6 Market outlook 12
6.1 Nickel cathode 12
6.1 Nickel cathode 12
6.2 Ferronickel 12
6.3 Nickel sulfate 12
6.4 Lateritic nickel ore 12


GRAPHS

Graph 1 Jinchuan nickel cathode price in the Chinese spot market from Dec 2017 to Jan 2018 (RMB/t) 1
Graph 2 Norilsk nickel cathode prices in the Chinese spot market from Dec 2017 to Jan 2018 (RMB/t) 2
Graph 3 Inco nickel prices in the Chinese spot market from Dec 2017 to Jan 2018 (RMB/t) 2
Graph 4 Delivered-to-plants prices for Chinese ferronickel 10%min from Dec 2017 to Jan 2018 (RMB/mtu) 2
Graph 5 Chinese ferronickel 1.5% EXW prices from Dec 2017 to Jan 2018 (RMB/t) 2
Graph 6 Chinese battery grade nickel sulfate prices from Dec 2017 to Jan 2018 (RMB/t) 3
Graph 7 Chinese NCM 523 precursor prices from Nov to Dec (RMB/t) 3
Graph 8 Chinese electroplating grade nickel sulfate prices from Dec 2017 to Jan 2018 (RMB/t) 3
Graph 9 Chinese lateritic nickel ore 1.8%min prices in ports from Dec 2017 to Jan 2018 (RMB/t) 3
Graph 10 Chinese lateritic nickel ore 1.5%min in ports from Dec 2017 to Jan 2018 (RMB/t) 4
Graph 11 LME nickel prices from Nov to Dec (USD/t) 4
Graph 12 Stocks for LME nickel from Nov to Dec (t) 4
Graph 13 CIF Prices for Philippine origin lateritic nickel ore 1.5% in China from Dec 2017 to Jan 2018 (USD/t) 4
Graph 14 CIF Prices for Philippine origin lateritic nickel ore 1.8% in China from Dec 2017 to Jan 2018 (USD/t) 5
Graph 15 Lateritic nickel ore stocks in China from Jan 2016 to October 2017 (kt) 6
Graph 16 China's monthly imports for refined nickel from Jan 2016 to Dec 2017 (t) 7
Graph 17 China's monthly imports for refined nickel by country from Jan 2016 to Nov 2017 (t) 7
Graph 18 Chinese Imports of nickel ore by country in 2016-2017 (kt) 10
Graph 19 China's monthly imports for nickel hydrometallurgy intermediates from Jan 2016 to Dec 2017 (t) 11

Tables

Table 1 China's NCM precursor outputs by province (t) 6
Table 2 China's refined nickel imports in Dec 2017 7
Table 3 China's top 10 importers for refined nickel in Dec 2017 8
Table 4 China's imports for ferronickel in Dec 2017 9
Table 5 China's top 5 ferronickel importers in Dec 2017 9
Table 6 China's imports for nickel ore in Dec 2017 10
Table 7 China's top 10 importers for nickel ore in Dec 2017 11
Table 8 Top five Chinese importers of nickel hydrometallurgy intermediates in Dec 2017 12









.Asian Metal Copyright8%min prices in ports from Dec 2017 to Jan 2018 RMBt 3 Graph 10 Chinese lateritic nickel ore 1Asian Metal Copyright