【SMM analysis】Weekly Hydrometallurgical Recovery Market Update（8.18-8.23）

SMM News, August 21:

This week's situation in hydrometallurgical recycling:

This week, the price of cobalt sulfate continued to rise, nickel sulfate prices increased slightly, while the prices of salt products such as lithium carbonate fluctuated. Although the prices of salts increased, the coefficients for nickel and cobalt in ternary and lithium cobalt oxide black powder saw a slight uptick this week, whereas the lithium coefficient began to adjust downward after previous gains. The lithium point price for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) black powder also largely fluctuated this week. Taking ternary black powder as an example: currently, the nickel-cobalt coefficient for ternary cathode black powder ranges from 73% to 75%, up compared to last week, while the lithium coefficient ranges from 69% to 74%, down compared to last week. With the recent rise in lithium prices, ternary recycling hydrometallurgical companies are now offering quotes in two trends. One trend involves a unified coefficient quote for nickel, cobalt, and lithium due to the recent weeks' increase in lithium carbonate prices, with quotes falling around the average on our website.

The other trend maintains a lithium coefficient that is 2-3 percentage points lower than the nickel-cobalt coefficient, with nickel-cobalt quotes closer to the higher end of the average and lithium quotes closer to the lower end. Under both quoting methods, the final calculated transaction prices for the overall black powder differ very little, perhaps only by 100-200 yuan/ton. On the LFP hydrometallurgical side, most LFP hydrometallurgical plants continue with toll processing. As lithium carbonate prices fluctuate, some upstream powder processing companies have suspended quotes due to price uncertainty, but overall market transactions also fluctuate with lithium salt prices. Currently, profits for upstream powder processing remain better than those for the hydrometallurgical side. With the previous increase in lithium carbonate prices, there was a brief period where profits for various materials, including ternary, LFP, and lithium cobalt oxide, were above the surplus line. Profits for ternary and lithium cobalt oxide are hovering around 1,000-1,500 yuan, while LFP profits are around 500 yuan.