Most of the world's manganese mines have a long history and are gradually depleting. This year, a hurricane caused the GEMCO mine to shut down, further exposing its crisis of insufficient lifespan......

During the week, the average price of high-nickel pig iron (NPI) with 8-12% nickel content, as tracked by SMM, was 979 RMB per nickel point (ex-factory, including tax), reflecting a decrease of 7.9 RMB per nickel point from last week's average. The Indonesian NPI FOB index dropped by $0.5 per nickel point compared to the previous week. Overall, the prices of nickel pig iron have shown a downward and volatile trend this week.From the supply side, domestically, the price of nickel ore slightly loosened from its high level. However, due to weak production incentives among smelters, output remained stably low. Although domestic smelters' production enthusiasm has slightly decreased, the overall supply quantity remained relatively stable. In Indonesia, despite the fact that raw material inventories in Indonesian smelters are at low levels, the continuous addition of new production capacity only led to limited output increase, resulting in insignificant supply growth.

In August 2024, China's import volume of ternary cathode materials (NCM+NCA combined) was 5,401 mt, up 22% MoM and up 1% YoY. The export volume of ternary cathode materials (NCM+NCA combined) was 7,931 mt, up 4% MoM and down 3% YoY.

【SMM Analysis：Market Supply Increases, Refined Cobalt Export Average Price Declines MoM】In August 2024, China's imports of Refined Cobalt were approximately 177 mt (metal content), up 47% MoM and up 95% YoY.

Today, Iron ore futures moved downwards after a higher opening, with the most-traded contract I2501 closing at 680 yuan/mt, up 0.15% for the day.