SK On Ends Five-Year Loss Streak

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has issued the 15th Five‑Year Plan for Green and Low‑Carbon Industrial Development, which calls for consolidating and upgrading green competitive industries. It accelerates technological iteration and scenario expansion in key sectors such as new energy vehicles (NEVs), new energy equipment, and new‑type energy storage. It promotes innovative applications of next‑generation power batteries, automotive‑grade chips, and automotive operating systems, and expands the deployment of heavy‑duty NEV trucks in scenarios including trunk line transport, short‑and‑medium‑haul logistics, urban construction, and mining and port operations. It substantially increases the share of green electricity used in polysilicon production, breaks through design and manufacturing technologies for highly reliable wind turbines in desert‑Gobi‑wasteland, high‑altitude, and deep‑sea environments, and promotes the integrated application of wind‑solar‑storage equipment tailored to local conditions. It accelerates the development of large‑capacity, high‑safety, all‑climate, long‑life lithium‑battery products, extends high‑performance lithium batteries to applications in low‑altitude equipment, intelligent robots, electric vessels, electric construction machinery, and new‑energy agricultural machinery, and expands new‑type energy storage applications in areas such as coordinated power supply operation and grid stability support.

In 2026, as restored lithium iron phosphate (LFP) capacity expands from 150,000–160,000 tons to 170,000–180,000 tons, traditional hydrometallurgical LFP recycling companies are facing a wave of profit and competitive landscape reshaping driven by rivalry between different technological routes.

With the booming development of the new energy vehicle industry, China's first wave of power batteries has entered a large-scale retirement phase. Recently, lithium battery recycling projects have been intensively launched across multiple regions nationwide, covering every link of the industrial chain — from dismantling and crushing to hydrometallurgy, from cascade utilization to material regeneration.