Entering late January 2026, the domestic LMO market was caught in a dilemma of "strong pressure on the cost side and weak demand." Upstream lithium carbonate prices continued to fluctuate upward since the beginning of the month, directly pushing up LMO production costs as a core raw material; meanwhile, downstream demand showed mediocre performance, with insufficient market absorption capacity, making it difficult to digest cost transmission pressure. Amid the interplay of bullish and bearish factors, LMO market prices exhibited a weak and stable trend under pressure.

Currently, LMO producers face core pressure from the continuous rise in upstream lithium carbonate prices, coupled with fluctuations in other auxiliary material costs, leading to a significant increase in production costs. While cost pressure continues to transmit downstream, the demand side for LMO fails to provide effective support, with demand across various application sectors generally mediocre and overall market absorption capacity insufficient, further constraining the upside room for the LMO market.

The power battery sector, as the largest demand source for LMO, recently showed mediocre demand. Affected by the slowdown in end-use consumption growth in the NEV market, most downstream enterprises focused on digesting existing inventory, showing low enthusiasm for LMO procurement. Industries such as electric two-wheelers and small digital products entered the traditional off-season for demand, with downstream enterprises having weak stockpiling willingness; LMO purchases were mostly small or urgent orders, resulting in limited overall procurement volume. Notably, as the Chinese New Year approaches, downstream enterprises have not shown significant pre-holiday stockpiling activity, with most maintaining a cautious wait-and-see attitude; market transactions were primarily based on purchasing as needed.

Overall, the current LMO market is constrained by both increasing cost pressure and weak demand absorption. With a lack of positive factors in the short term, the market is expected to maintain a weak and pressured operation before the holiday, with insufficient momentum for significant price increases or decreases. In the long term, as LMO applications expand in the cost-effective lithium battery materials sector, coupled with the continuous development of the NEV and ESS industries, LMO market demand is expected to gradually rebound.