[SMM Analysis] This Week's Hydrometallurgy Recycling Market: Lithium Chemicals Prices Began to Rise, and Market Transactions Were Mediocre (2026.3.23-2026.3.26)

SMM News, March 26:

Raw material side, lithium carbonate prices started to rise this week, while cobalt sulphate and nickel sulphate prices remained temporarily stable. This week, by ternary, LCO, and LFP material types, on the LFP hydrometallurgical side, taking LFP pole piece black mass as an example, the current price of LFP pole piece black mass was 6,300-6,650 yuan/prices per % lithium, with the transaction center continuing to move upward WoW from last Thursday. As lithium carbonate futures and spot prices continued to rise today, LFP black mass prices also followed upward this week. However, as lithium carbonate prices had still mainly fluctuated over the past two weeks, and some enterprises had completed just-in-time stockpiling last week, market purchase sentiment turned cautious amid rising lithium chemicals prices; on the ternary and raw material side, ternary hydrometallurgical enterprises had now fully resumed normal purchasing, but as nickel and cobalt prices changed relatively little, and some enterprises had made just-in-time procurement at the beginning of the month, transactions in the ternary and pure cobalt scrap markets were relatively sluggish this week, basically flat from last week.

SMM New Energy Research Team

Wang Cong 021-51666838

Ma Rui 021-51595780

Feng Disheng 021-51666714

Lv Yanlin 021-20707875

Zhou Zhicheng 021-51666711