[SMM Analysis] An Article Reviewing Recent Tiered Price Trends, 2024.1.13-2025.1.16

SMM, January 16: This week, the price of B-grade waste batteries for cascade utilization continued to decline. In terms of supply, as the Chinese New Year approaches, the production pace of ESS and power batteries slowed down, leading to a reduction in the production of A- and B-grade cascade utilization batteries. On the demand side, also due to the upcoming Chinese New Year, demand for small power, small ESS, and applications such as streetlights significantly contracted. This contraction in demand kept the overall cascade battery market in a state of oversupply. For cascade enterprises, due to the rapid iteration in the battery cell market, recycling companies were concerned that blindly stockpiling might lead to price drops for cascade battery cells after the holiday, making them reluctant to purchase cascade batteries at this time. In terms of actual transactions, although vehicle manufacturers and traders showed sentiment to stand firm on quotes, cascade utilization enterprises, which generally also operate other production lines such as powder processing and have relatively small cascade production lines, were not significantly affected by reducing cascade purchases. They were unwilling to pay high prices for B-grade cascade batteries, resulting in further price declines for B-grade battery cells if transactions occurred. If no new utilization methods emerge downstream to expand demand, the price of B-grade cascade batteries is expected to continue declining.

SMM New Energy Research Team

Cong Wang 021-51666838

Rui Ma 021-51595780

Disheng Feng 021-51666714

Ying Xu 021-51666707

Yanlin Lü 021-20707875

Yujun Liu 021-20707895

Xiaodan Yu 021-20707870

Zhicheng Zhou 021-51666711

He Zhang 021-20707850