[SMM Weekly Review] This Week's Hydrometallurgy Recycling Market: LFP Black Mass Prices Continued to Rise (2025.10.27-2025.10.31)

Published: Oct 30, 2025 19:02

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This week, prices of salt products such as cobalt sulphate and nickel sulphate remained stable, while lithium carbonate prices began to rise steadily due to solid fundamentals, including strong demand. As lithium chemicals rose, the lithium payables for ternary and LCO black mass increased slightly, while discount coefficients for nickel and cobalt remained stable. For LFP black mass, prices per % lithium rose this week in line with higher lithium chemical prices. Taking LFP pole piece black mass as an example, current prices are 2,900-3,100 yuan/mtu, up 150 yuan/mtu WoW. For ternary black mass, the nickel and cobalt payables currently stand at 75.5-76%, flat WoW, while lithium payables rose to 71-74% MoM. On the profit side, externally purchased LFP black mass used in lithium carbonate production continued to incur losses, with profit margins ranging from -5% to 6%. Except for several newly commissioned LFP battery hydrometallurgy recycling plants this year, most LFP recycling enterprises have production lines capable of processing other raw materials to produce lithium carbonate. Therefore, even as lithium carbonate prices improved, many companies chose to halt purchasing and production in the face of losses. Similarly, in the ternary hydrometallurgy sector, profits hovered around 1-3%. In the LCO hydrometallurgy sector, as cobalt prices continued to rise, driving up cobalt payables for upstream and downstream recycling companies, profits recently declined to around 1-3%. Supply side, following the price increases in nickel, cobalt, and lithium, upstream recyclers quickly raised prices for batteries and pole pieces, including LCO and LFP types, with black mass prices also increasing to some extent. Despite ongoing losses, most companies adopted a wait-and-see approach, with many LFP hydrometallurgy plants maintaining toll processing for Business clients.

SMM October 30 News:

This week, prices of salt products such as cobalt sulphate and nickel sulphate held steady, while the price of lithium carbonate began to rise continuously due to solid fundamentals including good demand. With the increase in lithium chemical prices, the lithium payables for ternary and LCO black mass rose slightly, but discount coefficients for nickel and cobalt remained stable. The price per % lithium for LFP black mass increased this week along with the rise in lithium chemical prices. Taking LFP pole piece black mass as an example, the current price is 2,900-3,100 yuan/mtu, up 150 yuan/mtu WoW. For ternary black mass, the nickel and cobalt payables for ternary pole piece black mass currently stand at 75.5-76%, flat WoW, while the lithium payables are in the range of 71-74%, up WoW. On the profit side, externally purchasing LFP black mass to produce lithium carbonate continued to incur losses, with profit margins between -5% and 6%. Except for several newly commissioned LFP battery hydrometallurgy recycling plants this year, most LFP recycling enterprises have production lines capable of producing lithium carbonate from other raw materials. Therefore, even as lithium carbonate prices improved, most companies chose to halt purchasing and production when faced with losses. The situation is similar in the ternary hydrometallurgy sector, where profits generally hover around 1-3%. In the LCO hydrometallurgy sector, as cobalt prices continued to rise, driving up cobalt payables for upstream and downstream recycling enterprises, profits have recently declined to around 1-3%. Supply side, after the price increases for nickel, cobalt, and lithium, upstream recycling enterprises quickly followed with price hikes for batteries and pole pieces, including LCO and LFP batteries, and black mass prices also increased to some extent. Most enterprises, facing losses, adopted a wait-and-see approach, with many LFP battery hydrometallurgy recycling plants maintaining toll processing for business clients.

SMM New Energy Research Team

Cong Wang 021-51666838

Rui Ma 021-51595780

Disheng Feng 021-51666714

Yanlin Lü 021-20707875

Zhicheng Zhou 021-51666711

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