Recently, global nickel and cobalt prices have risen significantly, directly impacting the supply of key materials and the cost structure across the high-precision pressure sensor industry chain. Although the exact timing of the event has not been clearly disclosed, according to authoritative market data, this round of price fluctuations has already been materially transmitted to the domestic manufacturing end and export links, creating a systemic impact on upstream procurement, midstream processing, and downstream delivery schedules in the sensor industry.

Event Overview

According to data jointly released on May 18 by the London Metal Exchange (LME) and Shanghai Metals Market (SMM), the spot price of electrolytic nickel reached 22,800 USD/ton, while cobalt intermediate products were quoted at 39,200 USD/ton, up 12.3% and 18.1% week-on-week respectively. Nickel and cobalt are key raw materials for the core elastic components of pressure sensors (such as Inconel alloy diaphragms and cobalt-based brazing filler materials). This round of price increases has already been reflected in quotations from leading domestic sensor manufacturers, and it is expected that the average export FOB price will rise by 5%–7% starting in June, with lead times extended to 8–10 weeks.

Which Segments Will Be Affected

Direct trading enterprises: As industrial metals actively traded in cross-border transactions, sharp price fluctuations in nickel and cobalt have increased the difficulty of import and export hedging and the risk of contract performance; shortened quotation cycles and frequent premium adjustments have reduced the willingness to lock in long-term orders, and some small and medium-sized traders have already suspended signing new import agreements for cobalt intermediate products.

Raw material procurement enterprises: Long-term procurement agreements with overseas mines or smelters mostly adopt floating pricing mechanisms, and this round of increases has exceeded the quarterly cost budget thresholds of most enterprises; compounded by continuously low LME inventories (as of May 18, nickel inventory stood at 42,100 tons, down 23% from the beginning of the year), bargaining power has been further weakened, and stocking strategies are shifting from “purchase on demand” to “front-loading safety stock.”

Processing and manufacturing enterprises: The manufacturing of high-precision pressure sensors requires extremely high consistency in nickel-based high-temperature alloy diaphragms, and the validation cycle for substitute materials is long (usually requiring 6–12 months of reliability testing), making it impossible to relieve cost pressure through formulation adjustments in the short term; currently, some high-end models have already suspended order intake and are prioritizing delivery保障 for strategic customers.

Supply chain service enterprises: Third-party service providers offering customs, logistics, and financial support have observed that the approval process for letters of credit involving nickel and cobalt raw materials is becoming stricter, and banks are increasing the frequency of reviewing collateral for bulk commodity financing; meanwhile, international cargo insurance premium rates for goods containing cobalt-based brazing materials have risen by about 0.8 percentage points, further increasing overall contract fulfillment costs.

Key Focus Areas and Response Measures for Relevant Enterprises or Practitioners

Dynamically assess the technical feasibility of alternative materials

Focus on the pilot progress of Fe-Ni-Cr series low-cobalt diaphragms jointly developed by domestic research institutes and leading sensor manufacturers, avoiding the oversimplified equation of substitution pathways with “downgrading,” and instead concentrating on long-term performance degradation curves and the adaptability of temperature drift compensation algorithms.

Reconstruct export quotation models and delivery terms

It is recommended to adjust the original “fixed FOB price + 90-day payment term” model to “base price + nickel-cobalt index linkage coefficient (linked to the LME weekly average) + tiered advance payment ratio (≥40%),” while clearly defining in the contract the trigger conditions for delivery extensions and the boundary for force majeure determination.

Strengthen tiered management of safety stock for critical materials

Based on the proportion of nickel and cobalt usage in different sensor models, the progress of domestic substitution, and the rigidity of customer orders, divide materials into A/B/C三级 material pools; for Category A (such as Inconel 718 diaphragms), implement strategic reserves of no less than 12 weeks of usage, and sign reverse price protection agreements with upstream alloy suppliers.

Participate in coordinated nickel-cobalt resource development projects

Pay attention to the application window in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s “Guidelines for Building Safeguard Capacity for Key Metals (2024 Edition)” regarding the “special joint research project for special alloy materials used in sensors,” and explore embedding into cooperative technology chains for recycling by-products from overseas nickel-cobalt associated ore smelting as an application-side participant, so as to improve the certainty of resource acquisition.

Editorial Viewpoint / Industry Observation

显然，这一轮价格飙升并不仅仅是由短期供应紧张驱动的周期性波动，而是反映了更深层次的结构性变化：印度尼西亚能源密集型精炼成本上升，欧盟电池法规对钴可追溯性的合规要求趋严，以及航空航天和医疗设备领域传感器国产化进程加快——这些因素共同压缩了材料利润缓冲空间。分析显示，具备合金熔炼垂直一体化能力的制造商（例如拥有真空感应熔炼产线的企业）正在获得相对更强的成本韧性，而纯装配型企业则面临不断扩大的竞争力差距。与其将此次事件视为一次普通的价格波动，不如将其解读为对供应链自主可控能力的一次压力测试——在这样的环境下，技术深度比单纯的采购灵活性更具决定性。

Conclusion

The volatility of nickel and cobalt prices once again confirms that the competitive focus of the high-precision sensor industry is shifting from competition based on single performance parameters to a systematic contest of controllability across the entire chain of materials, processes, and standards. Short-term pain is difficult to avoid, but what deserves greater attention is whether this round of pressure can accelerate the substantive development of a domestic independent benchmarking system for Inconel-type alloys, nondestructive testing methodologies for cobalt-based brazing materials, and impurity spectrum databases for sensor-grade nickel and cobalt.

Information Source Notes

Data sources: publicly available market quotations on the official website of the London Metal Exchange (LME), and the “Weekly Nickel-Cobalt Market Report” dated May 18 from Shanghai Metals Market (SMM); technical parameters are cited from “GB/T 34035-2017 Nickel-Based High-Temperature Alloy Sheets for Pressure Sensors”; policy references are based on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s “Guiding Catalogue for the First Batch Application Demonstration of Key New Materials (2024 Edition)” (draft for comments). Items to continue monitoring: the implementation pace of new nickel smelting regulations in Indonesia, the launch progress of the EU New Battery Regulation cobalt traceability platform, and the quarter-on-quarter trend in Q3 gross margin changes among domestic sensor enterprises.