Latest Update in the SMM Cobalt Market

In November 2025, BYD's FinDreams Battery updated the official technical information graphic for consumer batteries on its website, listing solid-state electrolytes under electrolytes as part of chemical innovations. Other materials, such as high-energy-density ternary cathode materials, high-energy-density silicon-based anodes, and ultra-thin, high-viscosity separators, were also integrated with solid-state electrolytes to form a closed loop for solid-state batteries.

This Week's Recycling Event Progressed as Follows:

Recycling Industry Events This Week (November. 3-7)

In November 2025, BYD's FinDreams Battery updated the official technical information graphic for consumer batteries on its website, listing solid-state electrolytes under electrolytes as part of chemical innovations. Other materials, such as high-energy-density ternary cathode materials, high-energy-density silicon-based anodes, and ultra-thin, high-viscosity separators, were also integrated with solid-state electrolytes to form a closed loop for solid-state batteries.

Australia’s Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS) has found operating in Brazil to be easier than at home, just months after completing a A$560 million ($363 million) acquisition to establish a foothold in South America.

LATP, leveraging its cost and synthesis advantages, is being rapidly adopted as a separator coating and electrode additive in solid-state and semi-solid-state batteries. The current market size is limited, approximately at the 1 billion level, primarily constrained by instability with lithium anodes and competition from technologies such as LLZO. It serves as an important transitional material in the short to medium term.

On November 3, the Li-ion Battery Europe 2025, organized by SMM and supported by ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment (Government of Catalonia), was grandly held at the Hilton Barcelona, Spain!

On November 8, 2025, the State Council Information Office released the white paper titled "China's Actions for Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality," elevating ESS and new energy technologies to a strategic level. Solid-state batteries, with their core advantages of high energy density and intrinsic safety, have become a key technology for promoting comprehensive electrification of transportation and long duration energy storage (LDES) in the power grid. Driven strongly by the "1+N" policy system, solid-state batteries are gaining huge market demand and policy dividends while also facing opportunities and challenges in accelerating technological breakthroughs, reducing costs, and building a green life cycle recycling system.

November 7 news: North China ports: South African high-iron manganese ore at 29.4-30.1 yuan/mtu, up 0.34% WoW from last Friday; South African semi-carbonate at 34.1-34.6 yuan/mtu, up 0.29% WoW from last Tuesday; Gabonese ore at 39.6-40.4 yuan/mtu, flat WoW from last Friday; Australian lumps at 39.9-40.4 yuan/mtu, down 0.25% WoW from last Tuesday; South African medium-iron manganese ore at 35.2-35.9 yuan/mtu, up 0.28% WoW from last Friday. South China ports: South African high-iron manganese ore at 30.7-31.2 yuan/mtu, up 0.32% WoW from last Friday; South African semi-carbonate at 36.9-37.4 yuan/mtu, up 0.27% WoW from last Friday; Gabonese ore at 40.5-40.1 yuan/mtu, flat WoW from last Friday; Australian lumps at 40.1-40.8 yuan/mtu, down 0.25% WoW from last Friday; South African medium-iron manganese ore at 36.7-37.4 yuan/mtu, up 0.54% WoW from last Friday. Overall, the manganese ore market shows no significant changes in supply and demand, maintaining a firm and stable trend.

[SMM Analysis] In Q3 2025, the FOB South Korea nickel and cobalt payables for ternary pole piece black mass remained generally stable, but regional price spreads gradually narrowed; at the same time, an increasing trend in imports by Japan and South Korea and Southeast Asia emerged simultaneously, indicating a restructuring of cross-border flows, with Southeast Asia gradually becoming a key period for intermediate product processing and re-export.