The price of ternary cathode material is expected to continue fluctuating next week [SMM Ternary Cathode Material Market Weekly Review]

This week, prices for 5-series and 6-series NCM dropped, while 8-series material prices still rose slightly but have largely peaked.

The overall ternary cathode material prices shifted from growth to decline, primarily affected by the continuous drop in lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide prices. The future trajectory of lithium chemical prices remains highly uncertain, requiring close monitoring of relevant policy developments. On the other hand, driven by cost pressures, nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate prices continued to rise, coupled with an expected tight supply of nickel sulphate in September, leaving further upside room for their prices. Currently, the decline in lithium chemical prices exceeds the increase in nickel and cobalt salt prices, leading to an overall downtrend in ternary cathode material prices. Next week, ternary cathode material prices are expected to remain volatile.

Demand side, orders from some EV market producers in China slightly decreased in September, but overall demand remained at a yearly high. The main incremental demand still concentrated on 6-series materials, while demand for 5-series and 8-series materials pulled back slightly. The consumer market remained stable over the past two months with limited fluctuations. After October, overall demand is expected to gradually pull back.