[SMM Cobalt and Lithium Morning Meeting Summary: On Monday, ternary prices continued their downward trend. In terms of raw material costs, cobalt sulphate and manganese sulphate prices dropped slightly, while nickel sulphate remained stable temporarily. Lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide continued to show a downward trend. On the NEV market side, June is traditionally the off-season for the NEV market, with mediocre performance in auto sales. However, some leading battery cell manufacturers have seen a significant increase in procurement demand for medium- and high-nickel ternary cathode materials. The main reasons are, firstly, to stockpile in advance for new car models that are about to be launched, and secondly, to send them to overseas battery cell manufacturers for product verification.

SMM Cobalt Morning Meeting Summary: This week, the spot price of refined cobalt maintained a fluctuating trend. On the supply side, due to the slightly lower economic efficiency of refined cobalt production, the operating rate of smelters remained low, resulting in a slight decline in the supply of refined cobalt. On the demand side, influenced by the policy-related news from the DRC, some smelters and traders reported an increased willingness of downstream producers to inquire about prices. However, currently, most buyers and sellers are still in the negotiation stage, and overall market transactions remain weak. It is expected that before the official implementation of the policy, the spot price of refined cobalt will likely continue to fluctuate.

The EU has recently selected 13 overseas strategic raw material projects as a key initiative under its plan to secure the supply chain of critical minerals. For these 13 newly added overseas projects, the EU is expected to require a total capital investment of 5.5 billion euros (approximately 45.05 billion yuan). Specifically, the new projects cover 13 countries: Canada, Greenland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Serbia, Ukraine, Zambia, New Caledonia, Brazil, Madagascar, Malawi, South Africa, and the UK.

On June 10, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China publicly issued the "Public Notice on Regulating Matters Related to Imported Recycled Black Mass Raw Materials from Lithium-ion Batteries and Recycled Steel Cases," with the document index number 000014672/2025-00219. The notice disclosed the HS code for recycled black mass raw materials from lithium-ion batteries as 3824999996, and the announcement will be implemented from August 1, 2025.

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.