The ternary cathode material market is sluggish [SMM Weekly Review of Ternary Cathode Material Market]

This week, ternary cathode material prices continued to decline. Affected by weak market demand coupled with overcapacity, ternary materials lacked upward momentum. On the raw material side, due to sluggish downstream demand, nickel sulphate, cobalt sulphate, and manganese sulphate prices all showed minor downward trends. The decline in lithium carbonate slowed down, while lithium hydroxide still exhibited a relatively significant downward trend.

Currently in the traditional off-season for ternary materials, the market showed mediocre overall performance in June. In the NEV market, only some leading battery cell manufacturers had certain incremental demand for medium-high nickel products, while most producers reported mediocre order performance. Small power and consumer markets showed relatively better demand, but recent growth rates also slowed down.

Overall, actual transactions were sluggish, with industry focus concentrated on changes in cobalt export policies in the DRC. Ternary material prices are expected to maintain their downward trend in the short term.