The invention discloses a heat accumulating type rotary hearth furnace-wet sizing-submerged arc furnace nickel ore smelting method which comprises the following steps: a certain amount of lateritic nickel raw ore is dried, crushed, mixed with coal powder and caking agent, pressed into a ball containing carbon, distributed to a rotary hearth furnace by a distributing device and heated to 900 DEG Cto 1250 DEG C for 10min to 40min; the ball containing carbon is reduced into a metallic ball with 70 percent to 90 percent of metallization rate, discharged by a discharge device, and directly sent into water to be cooled, milled and sized. The iron material containing nickel after milling and sizing is dried by high-temperature oxygen losing waste gas, agglomerated and then sent into a submergedarc furnace or other melting equipment to separate the slag and the iron, and produce molten iron containing nickel. The method has simple process, short process, high efficiency, does not need coking coal, is applicable in the production of ferronickel with lateritic nickel of all grades, and no waste gas, waste water and waste solid is discharged during production.