Report: Shandong Fengyuan to expand cathode materials capacity in 2019

After the COMEX price surged in May 2024, the LME-COMEX price spread significantly widened, leading to changes in global copper cathode trade flows. Entering 2025, due to expectations of Trump's tariffs, global large traders shipped all deliverable sources to the US, reducing the amount of copper cathode imports that would have come to China.

To better serve as a benchmark for spot prices in the nickel, cobalt, manganese, and new energy industries, and to assist the market in optimizing order signing mechanisms, SMM, after a period of consolidation and market survey, plans to advance the release time of some prices starting from March 24, 2025

[SMM Analysis: Can the successive relaxation of export policies for copper concentrates from Indonesia and Panama save the Chinese market?]According to SMM, the Indonesian government announced on Monday that it has issued a 6-month copper concentrate export license to Freeport Indonesia. Today, Freeport Indonesia announced that it has obtained an export license for 1.27 million dmt of cu cons from the Indonesian Ministry of Trade, which means that ships carrying Freeport copper concentrate from Papua port are allowed to start shipping. Meanwhile, on March 13th, the President of Panama announced that he had approved the export of 120,000 dmt of Cobre Panama cu cons.

According to SMM data, starting from March 6, 2025, SMM mainstream copper cathode social warehouse inventories began consecutive destocking, with a total reduction exceeding 20,000 mt over the past three statistical periods. As of March 14, 2025, domestic copper cathode inventories totaled 345,500 mt, down 33,600 mt YoY, indicating that the destocking turning point in 2025 arrived earlier than in 2024.

On January 2, 2025, China’s Ministry of Commerce issued a file titled “Notice on Adjustments to the Public Consultation for the Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Exporting from China.” The notice mentions the potential implementation of export restrictions on battery and lithium processing related technologies. The deadline for feedback submission is February 1, 2025.

The management team confirms that the company has been in negotiations with potential long-term off-takers.

[SMM Analysis: LMFP Market Stable in September, Average Price and Production Down MoM] In September, LMFP prices fluctuated within a stable range due to limited current market demand, putting pressure on prices. On the production side, LMFP production slightly decreased in September.

During November 17-20, SMM new energy business director Wang Tian and marketing consultant Yu Lei led SMM staff and members of the delegation to visit lithium battery raw material producers in Hunan in order to seek more in-depth cooperation opportunities. Their first stop was Hunan Kingfuli New Energy Co., Ltd.

The project aimed at providing raw materials for lithium-ion power batteries

This round of production curtailments is the most stringent since the winter