[SMM Weekly Review] This week in the hydrometallurgy recycling market: nickel and lithium fluctuated, and hydrometallurgy recycling transactions were sluggish, 2026.7.20-2026.7.23

Published: Jul 23, 2026 18:24

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Raw material side, lithium carbonate and nickel sulphate prices fluctuated this week, while cobalt sulphate prices fell steadily.

SMM July 23 News:

Raw material side, this week, lithium carbonate and nickel sulphate prices fluctuated, while cobalt sulphate prices fell steadily. This week, by material type for ternary LCO and LFP: For the LFP hydrometallurgical side, taking LFP electrode black mass as an example, LFP electrode black mass prices were 6,350-6,800 yuan/mtu, with prices also falling steadily WoW from last Thursday’s deals. Mainly because lithium carbonate prices fell steadily from Monday to Wednesday, further driving a slight downward adjustment in LFP black mass prices. Meanwhile, LFP battery black mass prices were 5,650-6,000 yuan/mtu, and the price spread with electrode black mass gradually widened. The main reason was that several LFP repair enterprises were actively producing, mainly purchasing LFP electrodes, thus expanding the demand market for waste LFP electrode ends. Therefore, some LFP hydrometallurgical enterprises switched to purchasing LFP battery black mass, or additionally purchased LFP electrode black mass at higher prices; For the ternary and LCO side, nickel and cobalt payables for ternary electrode black mass were around 76-78%, and the market began to see low-price deals successively, with low-end payables falling; Cobalt and lithium payables for pure cobalt and high-cobalt scrap also fell steadily. On Monday, refined cobalt prices fell steadily, and cobalt sulphate prices also fell steadily; combined with sluggish demand in the end-use consumer market, upstream hydrometallurgical enterprises saw sluggish purchases and deals.

SMM New Energy Research Team

Wang Cong 021-51666838

Ma Rui 021-51595780

Feng Disheng 021-51666714

Lü Yanlin 021-20707875

Zhou Zhicheng 021-51666711

Data Source Statement: Except for publicly available information, all other data are processed by SMM based on publicly available information, market communication, and relying on SMM's internal database model. They are for reference only and do not constitute decision-making recommendations.

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