[SMM Weekly Review] Disassembly recycling market transactions were sluggish this week (June 9, 2025 - June 12, 2025)

SMM, June 12:

Current situation of hydrometallurgy recycling this week:

Recycling: This week, the price of cobalt sulphate continued to decline, the price of nickel salts remained stable, while the price of lithium chemicals saw a slight decrease. This week, the coefficients for ternary and LCO black mass continued to fall, while the prices per % lithium for LFP remained stable. Taking ternary black mass as an example: Currently, due to the prolonged low prices of lithium carbonate, the revenue generated from lithium chemicals is lower than that from nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate. Therefore, most ternary hydrometallurgy recycling enterprises price the nickel-cobalt and lithium coefficients of ternary black mass separately. Taking the coefficient of ternary pole piece black mass as an example: Currently, the nickel-cobalt coefficient of pole piece black mass ranges from 74-76%, while the lithium coefficient of pole piece black mass ranges from 71-74%. On the demand side, most hydrometallurgy recycling plants have maintained a semi-shutdown state amidst the continuous decline in nickel, cobalt, and lithium salt prices. They are only consuming basic inventory and reducing the frequency of external purchases, offering lower quotes, resulting in very sluggish market transactions. On the supply side, the psychological selling prices of grinding mills and traders have loosened somewhat due to the continuous decline in salt prices and the sentiment surrounding it. The prices of black mass have generally followed the downward trend of salt prices, but the rate of decline is still slower than that of salt prices. Moreover, some grinding mills, as their current profits from the grinding process are still below the surplus line, have chosen to hold back from selling, waiting for a subsequent market recovery. Market transactions remain sluggish. On the cost side, currently, except for leading integrated hydrometallurgy recycling plants, the profits of most hydrometallurgy recycling enterprises are still below the surplus line. In particular, LFP hydrometallurgy recycling plants have been significantly affected by the decline in lithium salt prices. Currently, the profitability of the ternary hydrometallurgy recycling segment is slightly better than that of the LFP segment, while the profitability of the grinding segment is slightly better than that of the hydrometallurgy recycling segment. However, the profits of the grinding segments of some small and medium-sized enterprises continue to be inverted.

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