Lithium Prices Retreat After Rapid Rise, Second-Life Application Market Prices Hold Steady as Demand Weakens [SMM Weekly Review]

Published: May 14, 2026 16:11

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Second-life battery market prices remained stable this week. Cost side, spot lithium carbonate surged earlier this week before pulling back rapidly, while cobalt sulphate and nickel sulphate prices largely traded sideways and held steady, with raw material futures showing clearly divergent trends. Supply side, the market overall maintained a regular shipments pace, with supply circulation proceeding smoothly and orderly. There were no signs of new capacity ramping up or concentrated inflows of supply, lacking significant incremental support, and the overall industry supply side remained neutral and stable. Demand side, the small power market has fully banned the use of second-life disassembled battery cells. The small power application channel that previously supported part of the demand for disassembled products was directly shut down, and there is currently no new substitute demand to fill the gap, forcing large volumes of disassembled products to be redirected to disassembly recycling channels for absorption. Although prices of disassembled products temporarily remained stable, overall transaction volume was extremely sluggish. For the Grade A and B market, earlier expectations for price hikes had emerged, driven by the sharp rise in lithium carbonate prices, but downstream acceptance of high prices remained low, and no effective high-price transactions materialized. As lithium carbonate prices pulled back rapidly, expectations for price hikes quickly faded, and the overall trading pace slowed down further.

SMM May 14 update:

Second-life application weekly update:

Second-life battery market prices remained stable this week. Cost side, spot lithium carbonate pulled back rapidly after an earlier surge, while cobalt sulphate and nickel sulphate prices largely traded sideways and held steady, with raw material futures showing clearly divergent trends. Supply side, the market overall maintained a regular shipments pace, with cargo flow proceeding smoothly and in an orderly manner. There were no signs of new capacity ramping up or concentrated cargo inflows, lacking significant incremental support, and the overall industry supply side remained neutral and stable. Demand side, the small power market has fully banned the use of second-life disassembled battery cells. The small power application channel that previously supported part of the demand for disassembled products has been directly shut down, and there is currently no new substitute demand to fill the gap, forcing large volumes of disassembled products to be redirected to disassembly recycling channels for absorption. Although prices for disassembled products have temporarily remained stable, overall transaction volume has been extremely sluggish. For Grade A and B products, earlier expectations for price hikes had emerged driven by the sharp rise in lithium carbonate prices, but downstream acceptance of high prices remained low, and effective high-price transactions never materialized. As lithium carbonate prices have now pulled back rapidly, expectations for price hikes have quickly faded, and the overall trading pace has further slowed down.

SMM New Energy Research Team

Wang Cong 021-51666838

Ma Rui 021-51595780

Feng Disheng 021-51666714

Lv 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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