On January 20, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) released GB/T 45203-2024 "Recycled Black Mass for Lithium-Ion Batteries". This specification details multiple requirements and regulations for recycled black mass used in lithium-ion batteries, including specific chemical composition, inspection and acceptance standards, sampling and sample preparation, packaging, and transportation. The key highlights compared to the pre-draft released in June 2024 are as follows: This version classifies the recycled black mass into two types and two grades based on the content of nickel, cobalt, lithium, and impurities. It adds requirements for water-soluble fluoride and specifies the content limits for chemical components like iron, phosphorus, and manganese. Overall, the new specification provides more detailed and specific guidance and standards for the comprehensive utilization industry of spent power batteries from new energy vehicles, contributing to the healthy development of the industry.

This week, prices for salt products such as sulfuric cobalt and sulfuric nickel continued to rise. Consequently, the nickel and cobalt coefficients for black mass like ternary and lithium cobalt oxide remained largely flat this week, and the lithium coefficient also stayed basically unchanged. The lithium point price for LFP black mass remained stable this week. Taking LFP electrode scrap black mass as an example, the current price is 26,500-28,000 RMB per lithium point. For ternary black mass, for instance, the current nickel-cobalt coefficient for ternary electrode scrap black mass is 73.5-75.5%, a slight increase of 0.5% compared to last week, while the lithium coefficient is 69-72%, also up about 1% from last week.

I. Price Review Lithium Battery Recycling: January-February: Pre-holiday stockpiling led to oscillating prices. In January, the price of spent lithium batteries overall moved within a range. As battery scrap prices remained firm, production costs for hydrometallurgical plants continued to be inverted, leading to no large-scale pre-holiday stockpiling demand; procurement was mostly for order-based, rigid demand. Due to the impact of the Spring Festival holiday in February, with breaks expected to last until around the Lantern Festival for some small and medium-sized crushing plants and traders, the circulation volume of scrap in the market decreased, resulting in thin trading. Prices for salts like sulfuric nickel and sulfuric cobalt remained basically stable in terms of demand, while lithium carbonate prices experienced a slight decline. As lithium salt prices fell while the price of black mass required for production remained temporarily stable, the cost inversion for some LFP recycling enterprises worsened, leading them to adopt a wait-and-see attitude.

【SMM Analysis】 In recent years, Mexico’s aluminium trade volume has steadily increased. Since the country lacks domestic production capacity for alumina and primary aluminium, it relies heavily on imports of raw aluminium materials from overseas, while recycling domestically generated aluminium scrap. From 2020 to 2024, imports of raw aluminium materials rose from 648,000 metric tons to 1.141 million metric tons—a year-on-year increase of 176%. As scrap aluminium prices surged, downstream manufacturers were forced to seek alternative solutions. Looking ahead, Mexico’s market is expected to shift its focus more toward the Middle East, with a growing preference for protecting domestic enterprises.

【SMM Scrap Aluminium Market Analysis】The European Union (EU) is one of the key exporters of scrap metals such as aluminium and copper globally. Amidst the ever-changing global political and economic market, the European market has been slowly inching towards a relatively careful approach towards their exports of scrap metal, which are key materials for the development of local industries, especially towards low carbon emission goals. As the scrap metals were not included in the tariffs outlined in Section 232, they are included under the general tariffs of 15% for EU exports to the US. Under this circumstance, European Aluminium acted as one of the biggest voices of the EU aluminium industries, actively highlighting how the USA’s tariffs make it an unfairly favourable export destination. This might lead into, not only the EU, but the global flow of scrap metal being preferentially exported to the US, leading to a larger shortage of metal scrap when markets are already struggling to fulfill their domestic demand for scrap as a raw material, creating pressure for local businesses and industries to stay afloat.