[SMM Analysis] Hydrometallurgy Recycling Market This Week: LFP Black Mass Prices Continued to Decline, and Market Stockpiling Basically Ended This Week (2026.2.2-2026.2.5)

SMM February 5 News:

Raw material side, nickel sulphate prices remained stable this week, while lithium carbonate and nickel sulphate prices started to decline.

This week, by ternary and LFP material types: LFP wet process side, taking LFP pole piece black mass as an example, current LFP pole piece black mass prices were 5,900-6,300 yuan/mtu, down significantly WoW. As we entered early February, LFP prices fell along with lithium carbonate prices, mainly because lithium carbonate prices continued to decline in recent days, and upstream grinding enterprises for LFP also lowered selling prices following the drop in lithium chemical prices, with significant market concessions, basically synchronously reducing selling expectations. Some LFP wet process enterprises intended to conduct additional LFP black mass restocking; although the market remained sluggish, it was slightly better than ternary and pure cobalt scrap. Ternary and LCO side: although lithium carbonate prices fell recently, nickel and refined cobalt in ternary and LCO also hold certain value. With nickel and cobalt prices temporarily stable, coupled with tight supply of ternary black mass, upstream grinding enterprises were reluctant to easily reduce prices, while downstream wet process enterprises had basically completed stockpiling, resulting in very sluggish transactions.

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