SMM, March 26:
Electrolyte market prices were temporarily stable this week. Among them, the average prices of electrolyte for ternary power battery, LFP, and LMO were 31,250 yuan/mt, 29,500 yuan/mt, and 22,750 yuan/mt, respectively. Cost side, overall electrolyte costs fluctuated relatively small this week. For LiPF6, downstream demand has recently rebounded. Coupled with moderate production controls by some producers, inventory destocking has been relatively evident since the start of this month, and overall industry inventory pressure has eased significantly. In addition, as the period for negotiate orders approached, enterprises showed stronger wait-and-see sentiment and a greater willingness to hold prices firm, and the pace of LiPF6 price declines narrowed markedly this week. In the solvent segment, although prices continued to rise due to the pass-through of upstream raw material costs and maintenance at major producers, the increase slowed compared with the previous period, leaving limited changes in the overall costs of electrolyte enterprises. In addition, due to a lag in passing prices on to downstream customers, electrolyte prices remained temporarily stable in the short term. Demand side, battery cell production in March increased significantly as post-holiday demand recovered and battery cell manufacturers stockpiled in advance for subsequent orders, thereby boosting electrolyte demand as well. Supply side, the electrolyte industry generally continued to produce based on sales. Driven by downstream demand boost, enterprises raised operating rates based on order conditions, and overall industry production was expected to rise accordingly. Overall, constrained by the relatively weak bargaining power of the electrolyte industry as a whole, subsequent price trends still warrant close attention to changes in upstream raw material prices.
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
Xu Mengqi 021-20707868
Hu Xuejie 021-20707858
Chen Bolin 021-51666836
Wang Yizhou 021-51595909
