Electrolyte prices rose this week (8.24-8.27) [SMM Lithium Battery Electrolyte Market Weekly Review]

SMM August 27 News:

This week, electrolyte prices rose, with average prices for ternary power battery electrolyte, LFP electrolyte, and LMO electrolyte at 32,000 yuan/mt, 31,450 yuan/mt, and 23,650 yuan/mt, respectively. From the cost side, LiPF6 continued its upward trend this week. This was mainly due to demand growth, while the industry's overall operating rate was already high. Although a few producers had idle capacity, their willingness to quickly ramp up output was weak, as they prioritized pushing up prices. Supply elasticity was insufficient, and the supply-demand balance was tight, giving producers strong confidence to hold prices firm. They successively raised their quotes, driving the market price up. In terms of additives, VC prices also rose. Recently, order negotiations began successively. As overall market supply did not increase significantly, demand growth further intensified the tight supply-demand situation. Producers' quotes were raised compared with earlier periods, pushing market prices higher. Regarding solvents, earlier geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East pushed up crude oil prices, which subsequently raised solvent costs. Since solvents were already near the break-even point, cost pressure could hardly be absorbed internally and had to be passed on to downstream customers, leading to some increase in quotes. Rising raw material costs drove up electrolyte costs, and this was partially passed on to electrolyte prices, resulting in some price increases. From the supply-demand perspective, power battery makers began stockpiling in advance for the September-October peak season, and the continued energy storage boom provided a further boost. These two positive factors drove battery cell production steadily higher. Electrolyte producers generally operated on a produce-to-order basis, following the increase in downstream orders, and the industry's operating rate rose in tandem. Overall, electrolyte cost increases have not yet been fully passed on to downstream clients, and future price trends will need to be continuously monitored in relation to raw material price changes and the extent of cost pass-through.

SMM New Energy Research Team

Wang Cong 021-51666838

Ma Rui 021-51595780

Feng Disheng 021-51666714

Lv Yanlin 021-20707875

Xu Mengqi 021-20707868

Hu Xuejie 021-20707858

Chen Bolin 021-51666836

Wang Yizhou 021-51595909