SMM October 30 News:
Second-Life Application This Week:
This week in the second-life battery market, LFP B-grade prices remained stable, while ternary high C-rate low ampere-hour B-grade specifications showed an upward trend. Cost side, cobalt salt prices remained stable this week, while lithium chemicals prices rose significantly, boosted by demand. Supply side, driven by factors in the end-use market such as demand release from the year-end ESS installation rush and increased overseas orders, coupled with sustained demand growth in the EV sector, battery cell market demand continued to climb, leading to a certain degree of reduction in the supply scale of the second-life market. Demand side, upstream raw material prices are generally at high levels, and the downstream market had long focused on just-in-time procurement; meanwhile, the impact of previous cobalt salt price increases has gradually transmitted to the end-use market. Against this backdrop, some enterprises have shown increased acceptance of price rises, pushing ternary B-grade prices upward this week.
Considering the current supply-demand pattern and cost transmission, although there is a certain degree of supply tightness in the market at this stage, short-term trends suggest overall demand in the second-life market will remain relatively stable, limiting the room for price increases and preventing significant fluctuations in the short term. However, given the lag in cost transmission, the impact of the current cobalt price increase has begun to transmit to the terminal second-life application segment. Consequently, ternary B-grade battery cell prices are expected to see a certain increase in the near term.
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
Yue Lei 021-20707873
