SMM News on August 7:
Hydrometallurgy recycling situation this week:
This week, cobalt sulphate prices continued to rise, nickel sulphate prices remained basically flat, while prices of salt products such as lithium carbonate fluctuated. This week, the nickel and cobalt coefficients of ternary and LCO black mass remained basically flat, and the lithium coefficient declined slightly after the previous drop in lithium carbonate prices. Meanwhile, the prices per % lithium of LFP black mass remained basically flat. Taking ternary black mass as an example: currently, the nickel and cobalt coefficients of ternary pole piece black mass are in the range of 72.5-75%, and the lithium coefficient is in the range of 70-72%. The nickel and cobalt coefficients of ternary battery black mass are in the range of 70-72.5%. On the demand side, most LFP battery hydrometallurgy recycling plants continue to engage in toll processing. With the fluctuating prices of lithium carbonate, the immediate cost of producing lithium carbonate from LFP black mass has once again fallen into losses, and market trading activity has declined. On the demand side of ternary hydrometallurgy recycling, most plants continue normal purchases. On the supply side, the psychological selling prices of grinding mills and traders have remained basically flat along with the fluctuating salt prices, and market trading is sluggish. However, due to the continuous slight rise in cobalt salt prices, the overall trading activity of ternary products is slightly better than that of LFP hydrometallurgy recycling. On the cost side, with the recent rebound in salt prices, except for the top integrated hydrometallurgy recycling plants, the profits from externally purchasing LCO black mass for salt extraction have returned above the surplus line, but the profits of ternary and LFP hydrometallurgy recycling plants still remain below the surplus line. The profits of grinding mills are slightly better than those of hydrometallurgy recycling, but the profits of some small and medium-sized grinding mills continue to be negative.
SMM New Energy Research Team
Wang Cong 021-51666838
Ma Rui 021-51595780
Feng Disheng 021-51666714
Lv Yanlin 021-20707875
Zhou Zhicheng 021-51666711
