In November 2025, SMM China's cobalt sulphate production increased 2.29% MoM and rose 16.4% YoY.
From the raw material structure perspective, affected by tight supply of cobalt intermediate products and MHP raw materials, coupled with the relatively prominent economic efficiency of the recycling process, the proportion of recycled materials continued to increase. In November, the raw material proportions were: cobalt intermediate products accounted for about 55%, MHP about 18%, and the proportion of recycled materials further increased to 27%.
On the demand side, ternary cathode precursor production dropped back slightly this month, and as most ternary enterprises had completed their annual centralized stockpiling last month, their willingness to purchase cobalt sulphate externally weakened somewhat, which to some extent suppressed the production enthusiasm of smelters.
Supply performance continued to diverge: some integrated enterprises, affected by production cuts in precursors, synchronously reduced cobalt sulphate production; however, against the backdrop of cobalt sulphate prices remaining high, recycling enterprises still maintained good profit margins, driving increased supply from recycling channels. Overall, total industry supply still achieved a slight increase.
Looking ahead to December, with further weakening of downstream ternary demand, coupled with tight raw material supply leading some intermediate product-based cobalt sulphate enterprises to plan production cuts, SMM cobalt sulphate production schedule in December is expected to drop about 7% MoM.
