Most second-quarter orders in the domestic EV market have been signed sequentially. While some manufacturers saw modest upward adjustments in payables, overall market changes remained limited.

Current manufacturer expectations for this month and April remain cautious, with some companies having already lowered their April production forecasts.

On the demand side, the EV battery market has seen order contractions compared to earlier expectations, impacted by lackluster new energy vehicle sales both domestically and internationally.

Although March traditionally marks a demand recovery period and represents the final deadline for "export rush" orders ahead of policy changes, leading to a significant MoM increase compared to February, the magnitude of this recovery is expected to be more limited than pre-holiday forecasts suggested.

This week, lithium hydroxide prices continued their gradual decline. Supply side, most production followed the schedule with no significant changes; market sentiment, upstream enterprises produced based on sales, spot order availability remained limited, and reluctance to budge on prices showed no signs of easing; downstream, some material plants exhibited certain purchase willingness, and with the National Day holiday approaching, hazardous chemical transport restrictions prompted some enterprises to inquire and stockpile in advance. Currently, transaction discounts show no clear downward trend, and based on this, lithium hydroxide prices continued to operate with minor reductions.

This week, the prices of ternary cathode material continued to decline. In terms of raw material costs, the price of cobalt sulphate continued to drop slightly, while the prices of nickel sulphate and manganese sulphate remained stable for the time being. Lithium carbonate rebounded to a certain extent due to macro sentiment, while the price of lithium hydroxide still showed a clear downward trend.