From the downstream demand side of nickel, China's stainless steel crude steel output in 2019 was 29.4 million tons, an increase of 2.693 million tons year-on-year, an increase of 10.08%.

Among them, the output of Cr-Ni steel (300 series) was 13.494 million tons, an increase of 673,400 tons and an increase of 5.25%, accounting for 45.9%, a decrease of 2.11 percentage points year-on-year; the output of Cr steel (400 series) was 5.5002 million tons , An increase of 35,700 tons year-on-year, an increase of 0.65%, the proportion was 18.72%, a year-on-year decrease of 1.75 percentage points; the production of Cr-Mn steel (200 series, including some products that did not meet national standards) was 10.224.1 million tons, an increase of 196.55 years 10,000 tons, an increase of 23.80%, accounting for 34.78%, an increase of 3.85 percentage points year-on-year.

According to the average 9% nickel content in 300 series stainless steel, it needs more than 1.215 million tons of nickel metal. It is estimated that the demand for nickel in China's traditional industries exceeds 1.52 million tons.

Due to the ultra-high development of China's domestic ternary battery industry in recent years, the demand for nickel in new battery materials has grown rapidly. According to statistics, from January to November 2019, China's total output of power batteries reached 79.2 GWh, an increase of 29.3% year-on-year, of which the cumulative capacity of ternary batteries was 50.3 GWh, accounting for 63.5% of the total output, an increase of 46.2% year-on-year . According to the ratio of the metal in the ternary battery, the nickel metal demand for the ternary battery is 35,000 tons to 40,000 tons in 2019.

In summary, the total demand for nickel metal in China's economic development in 2019 is 1.55 million tons to 1.56 million tons.