With the rainy season coming to an end in the Surigao region of the Philippines, nickel supply is expected to increase month-on-month in March, so the market had expected nickel prices to ease in March. However, from the current market situation, nickel ore price not only did not weaken the signs, the rising trend is more obvious than earlier, FOB and CIF prices have risen recently.
In terms of external supply, a small number of nickel mines in Surigao region of the Philippines began to offer the delivery period of March. Considering the insufficient supply in the overall market, the current offer price of mines in Surigao region is almost the same as the selling price of mines in northern Philippines, or even slightly increased, instead of decreasing as expected by the market. In addition, the bidding pace of northern nickel mines slows down recently, and the overall market supply is tight, which promotes the FOB transaction price of nickel mines to rise.
In the domestic market, as the impact of the Winter Olympics weakened, the northern nickel iron factory gradually resumed normal operation, domestic demand picked up, and factory inquiries improved; In addition, the price of high nickel iron remains above 1500 yuan/nickel (ex-factory tax included), which has strong support for medium and high nickel ore and promotes the upward price of domestic nickel ore.
From the overall market situation, after the recent stabilization of high nickel iron prices, domestic nickel ore prices began to make up, with the improvement of market demand, nickel ore prices are expected to rise further.
