Lithium Salts: Lithium salt prices saw gradual declines this week, while nickel and cobalt salt prices remained stable. Ternary and lithium cobalt oxide black powder coefficients began to dip slightly. Taking ternary black powder as an example: the current coefficient for ternary cathode black powder stands at 75-77%, and ternary battery black powder at 72-74%.

As of this Friday, at northern ports: Australian lump ore was priced at 38-39 yuan/mtu, up 4.70% WoW from last Friday; Australian seed ore was priced at 37-38 yuan/mtu, unchanged WoW from last Friday; South African semi-carbonate ore was priced at 33-33.5 yuan/mtu, up 3.05% WoW from last Friday; Gabon ore was priced at 37-38 yuan/mtu, up 1.35% WoW from last Friday; South African high-iron ore was priced at 30-30.5 yuan/mtu, unchanged WoW from last Friday. At southern ports: Australian lump ore was priced at 39-40 yuan/mtu, up 0.64% WoW from last Friday; Australian seed ore was priced at 38.5-39 yuan/mtu, unchanged WoW from last Friday; South African semi-carbonate ore was priced at 34-34.5 yuan/mtu, unchanged WoW from last Friday; Gabon ore was priced at 39-39.5 yuan/mtu, up 1.88% WoW from last Friday; South African high-iron ore was priced at 28.3-28.8 yuan/mtu, up 0.70% WoW from last Friday. Stimulated by the sustained strong and volatile performance of the SiMn futures market, the spot market for manganese ore and manganese alloys has also held up well. Miners' offers remained firm, and it was difficult to find low-priced supplies of high-grade manganese oxide ore in the market. On the demand side, alloy plants maintained just-in-time procurement of manganese ore, and spot cargo transactions continued to rise.

The procurement of lithium battery recycling declined in April, primarily due to inventory stockpiling by hydrometallurgical plants and the continuous downward trend in lithium salt prices.

SMM Cobalt Morning Meeting Summary: This week, the spot price of cobalt sulphate fell. Supply side, spot quotes for cobalt sulphate from smelters slightly loosened, and quotes from recyclers also declined. Demand side, downstream precursor plants showed weak acceptance of the current cobalt sulphate prices and had not yet initiated procurement actions. Meanwhile, Co3O4 enterprises were mainly in a wait-and-see sentiment, resulting in extremely sluggish spot transactions of cobalt sulphate recently. It is expected that next week, the spot price of cobalt sulphate may maintain a fluctuating trend.

[SMM Cobalt & Lithium Morning Meeting Summary: This week, the price of natural graphite saw a slight decline. Cost side, there were no significant changes in the prices of core raw materials and processing costs this week; the supply side remained relatively abundant; downstream demand was sluggish, with no signs of improvement. Therefore, although there was no significant fluctuation in production costs this period, due to production lag, the previous decline in raw material prices led to a slight drop in the price of natural graphite anode material this period.

①According to disclosures from participating companies, with the sustained recovery of the global new energy vehicle (NEV) industry and the rapid rise of the energy storage system (ESS) market, the global demand for lithium batteries has shown a growth trend since 2025. ②The latest sodium-ion battery has achieved an energy density breakthrough of over 200 Wh/kg, approaching the level of lithium iron phosphate (LFP). Although hydrogen energy and hydrogen fuel cells are still in the early stages of industrialisation, they hold immense market potential. Several companies have made new progress in the industrialisation of semi-solid/solid-state batteries.