(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters)

LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) -- China's Ministry of Finance made some minor but significant tweaks to its nickel import tariffs at the start of this year. The import duty on melting-grade nickel cathode was doubled from 1 percent to 2 percent, while that on nickel sulphate was cut from 5.5 percent to 2 percent.

Why the differentiation?

The reason is that nickel sulphate is a form of the metal highly suited to the production of precursor battery materials.

China, already a leader in the electric vehicle (EV) battery sector, is evidently laying the ground for stimulating imports of nickel in the most readily usable composition for lithium-ion battery processing.
 

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