SK Innovation E&S Launches Largest ESS Facility in New York

Iron phosphate negotiations in April were deadlocked, with offers hitting 13,000 yuan/mt. The price surge appeared raw-material driven, but in fact reflected pricing power shifting upstream after a reversal in supply-demand fundamentals. Downstream buyers cited “cost increases” to push back, yet conveniently forgot the upstream losses quietly absorbed over the past three years. This was never about simple cost pass-through—it was a restructuring of profit distribution across the chain.

At a conference call on March 31, Sungrow stated regarding the company’s overall target plan for energy storage shipments in 2026 that the global market is expected to grow by 30–50 in 2026. With raw material prices rising, some projects were in a wait-and-see stage, but the demand should still exist and would only be deferred. The company will strive based on the upper end of market growth, hoping to achieve more than 60 Gwh.

German company, Tozero, announced on March 27 (local time) the official launch of its industrial-scale demonstration plant. The company has built a facility at the Gendorf chemical park in Bavaria, Germany, capable of processing more than 1,500 tons of waste batteries annually. The process enables the recovery of lithium carbonate, graphite, and nickel-cobalt mixtures from spent batteries for reuse as battery raw materials. The plant is expected to recycle resources equivalent to batteries from approximately 6,000 electric vehicles per year, reducing reliance on landfill disposal.