【SMM Analysis】This Week's Hydrometallurgy Recycling Market: Recycling Prices Remained Stable, and Stockpiling in the Market Basically Ended (January 19–22, 2026)

SMM January 22 News:

This week, nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate prices were basically flat, while lithium carbonate prices fell before rising again.

By material type, ternary and LFP: For LFP wet process, taking LFP pole piece black mass as an example, current prices were 6,400–6,800 yuan/mtu, up slightly WoW. Due to recent volatility in lithium carbonate prices, LFP black mass prices trended volatile overall this week. However, with lithium carbonate rising in recent days, the increase in LFP black mass slowed, mainly because most downstream LFP wet process enterprises completed stockpiling in previous weeks, leading to sluggish market transactions. For ternary black mass, taking ternary pole piece black mass as an example, the current nickel and cobalt payables were 78–80%, flat WoW in discount coefficient, while lithium payables were 78–79%. Currently, the three payables—nickel, cobalt, and lithium—are all at similar discount levels. Although salt prices have risen, black mass payables and black mass prices have also increased simultaneously, so profits have not improved significantly compared to the previous rise.