Nickel ore prices continued to rise, but market trading was sluggish with a significant gap between buyer and seller price expectations. Philippine mine offers held firm, while the Indonesian market operated steadily under the existing pricing framework. In the Chinese market, downstream plants showed extremely low acceptance of the persistently rising ore prices, resulting in a substantial bid-ask spread. For instance, offers for 1.5%-grade ore reached as high as US $68/wmt, while plants generally targeted a price around US $63/wmt. Occasional transactions occurred based on long-term contracts or specific conditions, but these did not reflect broad spot acceptance levels. Most plants maintained a wait-and-see stance, leading to scarce spot procurement activity. With the Chinese New Year holiday approaching, participation in the Chinese market is expected to decline further. Nickel ore prices are likely to hold steady at elevated levels with little improvement in trading volume.