Since the "Regulation on Ensuring Payments to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises" officially came into effect on June 1, 2025, the automotive industry has responded swiftly. Seventeen mainstream automakers, including GAC, FAW, Dongfeng, and BYD, have publicly committed to uniformly shortening the payment terms for suppliers to within 60 days. This seemingly simple adjustment to payment terms is actually reshaping the underlying logic of the automotive supply chain. Especially for upstream battery cell manufacturers, its impact has gone beyond the level of capital turnover, touching the core lifeline of industrial development.

The total investment in Ruizhi New Materials' project with an annual output of 60,000 mt of graphite anode materials for lithium batteries is approximately 1.42 billion yuan. The project will be constructed in two phases. The first phase, with a capacity of 60,000 mt of graphitised anode materials for lithium batteries, is expected to commence trial production in Q1 2026.

Analysis of overall data indicates that in June, the energy storage sector saw weakened support from rigid demand due to the phase-out of mandatory energy storage allocation policies. The automotive sales surge driven by earlier auto shows has gradually subsided, with insufficient consumption momentum in the end market. Terminal demand is expected to show no significant growth. In terms of market transactions, Grade B prices in the echelon utilization market remained generally stable, while participants largely adopted a wait-and-see approach. On the supply side, echelon battery cells remain relatively abundant, while downstream demand shows no notable change. Overall, supply and demand remain largely balanced. Market activity in June remained subdued, with some echelon manufacturers maintaining essential procurement strategies due to expectations of future price declines.

This week in wet process recycling: Recycled materials: Cobalt sulfate prices continued to decline this week, nickel salt prices remained stable, while lithium salt prices saw a minor rebound. Recovery rates for ternary and lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) black mass continued to fall, while lithium content in lithium iron phosphate (LFP) black mass remained temporarily steady. Taking ternary black mass as an example: Currently, due to the prolonged low price of lithium carbonate, the revenue contribution from lithium is lower than that from nickel sulfate and cobalt sulfate under these conditions. Therefore, most ternary wet-process enterprises now price the nickel-cobalt and lithium recovery rates in ternary black mass separately. For instance, the current recovery rate for nickel-cobalt in ternary electrode sheet black mass is 74-76%, while the lithium recovery rate is 71-74%.

【SMM Analysis】Recycling Industry Events This Week (Jun. 9-13): This week's recycling industry events.

As of Friday this week, at northern ports: Australian lump ore was priced at 39.5-40.5 yuan/mtu, unchanged WoW from last Friday; Australian seed ore was priced at 35.8-36.8 yuan/mtu, unchanged WoW from last Friday; South African semi-carbonate ore was priced at 32.6-33.1 yuan/mtu, unchanged WoW from last Friday; Gabon ore was priced at 35.6-36.6 yuan/mtu, unchanged WoW from last Friday; South African high-iron ore was priced at 29.1-29.6 yuan/mtu, down 0.68% WoW from last Friday. At southern ports: Australian lump ore was priced at 39.3-40.3 yuan/mtu, unchanged WoW from last Friday; Australian seed ore was priced at 35.5-36 yuan/mtu, unchanged WoW from last Friday; South African semi-carbonate ore was priced at 33-33.5 yuan/mtu, unchanged WoW from last Friday; Gabon ore was priced at 37.6-38.1 yuan/mtu, down 1.30% WoW from last Friday; South African high-iron ore was priced at 28.3-28.8 yuan/mtu, unchanged WoW from last Friday. During the week, the inventory of manganese ore at ports decreased slowly, and inventory buildup continued. Miners' offers fluctuated relatively small. Some miners, affected by the sluggish market, temporarily held back from selling. Inquiries from downstream alloy plants were active, but actual transactions were relatively sluggish. The spot market for manganese ore was in the doldrums.

[SMM Analysis: Can Anode-Free Sodium-Ion Battery Cells Become a New Breakthrough for the Next Generation of Sodium-Ion Batteries?] SMM reported on June 13: At a time when the field of energy storage is constantly pursuing innovation and breakthroughs, anode-free sodium-ion battery cells, as an emerging technology, are gradually emerging and attracting widespread attention. With their unique design concepts and potential advantages, they offer new ideas for addressing the many issues faced by traditional batteries, but they also come with a series of challenges that need to be overcome urgently...