Metals & Mining Theme, Non-Ferrous

March 04, 2024

Platts to change China Ni-Co black mass quality specification, nickel conversion factor April 1

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, will change the quality specification of its nickel-cobalt (Ni-Co) black mass DDP China assessments by lowering the minimum content of lithium, cobalt and nickel while specifying a level for impurities, effective April 1.

The change reflects market feedback that, given the varying quality of Ni-Co black mass available in the Chinese spot market, a lower minimum content level for lithium, cobalt and nickel, as well as the introduction of impurity specifications, will better reflect the bulk of the material currently traded in China.

Platts will also update the conversion used to calculate the nickel component value of its Ni-Co black mass DDP China calculated price, moving to a nickel conversion factor of 0.223, from 0.225 currently.

Platts first proposed these changes via a subscriber note Feb. 16.

The specification changes are as follows:

Assessment Symbols Current Quality Specification New Quality Specification
Ni-Co black mass DDP China calculated price NBMCD00 Min. Li 4%, Co 10%, Ni 20% Min. Li 3%, Co 5%, Ni 12%; Less than 3% combined Cu, Al, Fe
Ni-Co black mass DDP China lithium payable NBMCA00
Ni-Co black mass DDP China cobalt payable NBMCB00
Ni-Co black mass DDP China nickel payable NBMCC00

The change to the formula for the nickel component of the Ni-Co black mass calculated price is as follows:

Current formula New formula
Calculated nickel component = Ni-Co black mass DDP China nickel payable (NBMCC00) x Platts nickel sulfate DDP China (BATNS04)/nickel metal conversion factor (0.225) x nickel base content (0.2) Calculated nickel component = Ni-Co black mass DDP China nickel payable (NBMCC00) x Platts nickel sulfate DDP China (BATNS04)/nickel metal conversion factor (0.223) x nickel base content (0.12).

Platts black mass assessments are published on Platts Nonferrous Metals Alert, Platts Metals Daily, Platts Connect, Platts Market Center and in the Platts price database under the symbols listed above.

The assessment is included on pages MTL8888 and PMA8888, along with Platts full suite of battery metal assessments.

Please send all comments and questions to battery_metals@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com.

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