[SMM Analysis] A Review of This Week's Scrap Spot Price Trends (February 3-6, 2025)

Published: Feb 6, 2025 17:15

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[SMM Analysis: A Review of This Week's Scrap Spot Price Trends (2025.2.3-2025.2.6)] This week, the recycled scrap market prices remained basically stable. Supply side: Most enterprises were on the Chinese New Year break until Tuesday, and some small and medium-sized crushing plants and traders are expected to extend their holiday until around the Lantern Festival. As a result, scrap circulation in the market was limited, and transaction activity was sluggish. Demand side: Prices of nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate remained basically stable, while lithium carbonate prices dropped slightly. Some lithium iron phosphate recycling enterprises adopted a wait-and-see attitude due to intensified losses caused by the drop in lithium chemical product prices, while the price of black mass, a production raw material, remained stable. Additionally, most leading recycling enterprises, to avoid last year's post-holiday surge in scrap prices, had stocked about one month's worth of raw material inventory before the Chinese New Year. This led to a lower willingness to accept high-priced black mass in the market. In the short term, black mass prices are expected to remain stable, following the price trends of nickel, cobalt, and lithium chemicals. Meanwhile, the black mass coefficient is likely to stay temporarily stable due to weak supply and demand.

SMM February 6 News:

This week, the recycled scrap market prices remained basically stable. Supply side: Most enterprises resumed work after the Chinese New Year break on Tuesday, and some small and medium-sized crushing plants and traders are expected to extend their holiday until around the Lantern Festival. As a result, the market circulation of scrap was limited, and transactions were sluggish. Demand side: Prices of nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate remained basically stable, while lithium carbonate prices dropped slightly. Some lithium iron phosphate recycling enterprises adopted a wait-and-see attitude due to intensified losses caused by the stable prices of black mass, the raw material for production, despite the decline in lithium chemical product prices. Additionally, most leading recycling enterprises, to avoid last year's post-holiday scrap price surge and the need to purchase black mass at high prices, stocked about one month's worth of raw material inventory before the Chinese New Year. This led to a low willingness to accept high-priced black mass in the market. In the short term, black mass prices are expected to remain stable, following the price trends of nickel, cobalt, and lithium salts, while the black mass coefficient is likely to stay stable due to weak supply and demand.

SMM New Energy Research Team

Cong Wang 021-51666838

Rui Ma 021-51595780

Disheng Feng 021-51666714

Ying Xu 021-51666707

Yanlin Lü 021-20707875

Yujun Liu 021-20707895

Xiaodan Yu 021-20707870

Zhicheng Zhou 021-51666711

He Zhang 021-20707850

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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