[SMM Weekly Review] Expectations for Chinese New Year Market Closure Heat Up, Second-Life Application Market Prices Hold Steady This Week (2026.02.9-2026.02.12)

Published: Feb 12, 2026 16:01

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This week, the second-life battery market maintained overall stable price performance. Cost side, lithium carbonate prices generally trended upward, while nickel and cobalt salt prices remained relatively steady, providing some cost support for second-life battery cells. Supply side, the second-life battery market gradually entered the Chinese New Year break phase, compounded by the traditional industry off-season, leading to a noticeable contraction in overall enterprise shipments and a continued reduction in market circulation supply. Demand side, influenced by fluctuations in lithium chemical prices, downstream enterprises adopted a more cautious purchasing mindset. Additionally, most enterprises operating normally during the Chinese New Year had completed stockpiling in advance, while others had already confirmed their Chinese New Year break schedules, resulting in a continued weakening of overall purchase willingness. Under the combined effect of multiple factors, overall market transactions entered a sluggish period. Although current fluctuations in spot lithium chemical prices introduced some variability in the cost side of second-life battery cells, price transmission still requires time. Coupled with the overall pullback in market demand during the Chinese New Year period, only minimal transactions occurred for second-life battery cells this week, with prices remaining generally stable. This trend is expected to persist until the end of the Chinese New Year holiday.

SMM January 22 News:

Second-Life Application This Week:

This week, the second-life battery market generally maintained stable operations. Cost side, lithium carbonate prices showed an overall upward trend, while nickel and cobalt salt prices remained relatively stable, providing some cost support for second-life battery cells. Supply side, the second-life market gradually entered the Chinese New Year break, compounded by the traditional off-season impact, leading to a noticeable contraction in overall enterprise shipments and a continuous reduction in market circulation supply. Demand side, influenced by fluctuations in lithium chemical prices, downstream enterprises adopted a more cautious purchasing attitude. Additionally, most enterprises operating normally during the Chinese New Year had completed stockpiling in advance, while some had already confirmed their Chinese New Year break arrangements, resulting in a continued weakening of overall purchase willingness. Under the combined effect of multiple factors, overall market transactions entered a sluggish period. Although current fluctuations in spot lithium chemical prices introduced some changes to the cost side of second-life battery cells, price transmission still requires time. Coupled with the overall pullback in market demand during the Chinese New Year, there were only minimal transactions for second-life battery cells this week, with prices remaining generally stable. This trend is expected to persist until the end of the Chinese New Year holiday.

SMM New Energy Research Team

Wang Cong 021-51666838

Ma Rui 021-51595780

Feng Disheng 021-51666714

Lyu Yanlin 021-20707875

Lei Yue 021-20707873

Data Source Statement: Except for publicly available information, all other data are processed by SMM based on publicly available information, market communication, and relying on SMM‘s internal database model. They are for reference only and do not constitute decision-making recommendations.

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