This week, industry chain prices diverged. Lithium ore edged down alongside lithium carbonate, but mines continued to hold prices firm, making profit distribution across the industry chain a market focus. Supported by maintenance and tight spot order supply, lithium carbonate prices consolidated on a subdued note, while lithium hydroxide prices initially fell before rebounding. The cobalt industry chain remained generally under pressure—with weakening overseas quotations and sluggish off-season demand, refined cobalt, intermediate products, and cobalt salt prices continued to weaken, and the price spread between buyers and sellers widened. Nickel sulphate edged down, with the market still primarily focused on destocking; ternary cathode precursor prices declined due to weaker nickel and cobalt salt prices, while ternary cathode material prices remained basically stable. LFP prices proved resilient, supported by rising processing fees, with August production schedules continuing to grow and high-quality capacity remaining tight. Artificial graphite prices rose, the supply-demand balance for separators stayed in tight balance, and electrolyte prices were pushed up by raw material cost transmission. Supply of key materials for sodium-ion batteries remained tight, while recycling-side transactions were subdued. On the terminal side, EV and ESS demand maintained resilience, though the consumer market recovery remained limited. Looking ahead, the focus will be on peak season stockpiling and demand realization.

As the traditional "September-October peak season" for auto sales is about to begin, NEV and other demand continues to increase, coupled with the rapid expansion of the energy storage industry, the supply-demand pattern of the upstream lithium carbonate market is ushering in critical changes. According to a China Securities research report, as the demand peak season in H2 2026 arrives, the lithium carbonate supply deficit is expected to gradually widen, peaking in Q4. If early stockpiling by the industry chain is considered, the price peak for the year may occur between the end of Q3 and the beginning of Q4.

On August 5, the EPC tender for the Renqiu Zhihong 100MW/400MWh new technology route lithium iron phosphate + sodium-ion independent energy storage pilot project in Cangzhou, Hebei Province, was launched. The project has a construction scale of 100MW/400MWh, adopting a new technology route that mixes lithium iron phosphate and sodium-ion batteries, with a supporting new 220kV booster station. The total investment is 409.5944 million yuan. The project covers approximately 50 mu of land, constructing an independent energy storage system with a new technology route of 100MW/400MWh lithium iron phosphate + sodium batteries, specifically comprising 30MW/120MWh high-capacity lithium iron phosphate, 60MW/240MWh long-life lithium iron phosphate, and 10MW/40MWh sodium-ion batteries. The energy storage batteries will utilize a hybrid technology of 90% capacity lithium iron phosphate batteries and 10% capacity sodium-ion batteries.

Ulanqab in Inner Mongolia has selected five companies to develop 1.1GW/4.4GWh of independent new energy storage projects. The projects will be located in Chahar Right Rear Banner and Siziwang Banner, structured as five four-hour storage stations with individual sizes of 200MW/800MWh or 300MW/1,200MWh. They will connect to the Sudun, Hongliang and Ruisheng 500kV substations. The selection rules require all projects to use grid-forming storage technology and encourage long-duration and alternative technologies such as compressed air storage, vanadium redox flow batteries and sodium-ion batteries, rather than relying only on conventional LFP systems. All projects must be fully commissioned by the end of 2027.

In recent years, China's lithium battery industry, leveraging mature technology systems and well-established industry chain support, has long underpinned the rapid development of the new energy industry in China and even globally, serving as the mainstay of the current energy storage and power battery markets. To further optimize the battery industry structure and diversify new-type battery technology pathways, relevant new policies in China have recently clarified that battery consumption tax will be levied on lithium batteries in phases, while sodium-ion batteries will be exempt from the battery consumption tax from September 1 this year through the end of 2028, in order to further cultivate the sodium-ion battery industry, which is still in its early growth stage. The 2%–4% tax rate differential over 28 months creates a critical window of opportunity to accelerate the large-scale deployment and commercialization of sodium-ion batteries.

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the 15th Five-Year Plan for Green and Low-Carbon Industrial Development, making systematic deployment in areas such as green energy utilization, carbon reduction in key industries, hydrogen industry cultivation, advanced equipment promotion, and technological innovation, to further increase the application proportion of clean energy like green electricity and green hydrogen in the industrial sector. The plan proposes that, on the premise of complying with national industrial layout requirements, regions with abundant green energy be supported to orderly undertake industries such as aluminum, steel, petrochemicals and chemicals, PV, and power batteries, extend the green energy industry chain, promote the large-scale application of green hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol, and enhance the on-site consumption capacity of green energy. At the same time, a number of zero-carbon factories and zero-carbon computing facilities will be built, exploring replicable and scalable construction models. Industrial green microgrids are also listed as a key development direction. The plan proposes promoting the integrated application of technologies such as PV, wind power, heat pumps, new-type energy storage, hydrogen energy, waste heat, pressure, and gas, and smart energy management, to facilitate the efficient complementary utilization of various energy sources in the industrial sector. In terms of key industry transformation, the steel industry will accelerate the concentration of steel scrap and green electricity resources to electric furnace short-process steelmaking enterprises, and promote the industrialisation of low-carbon metallurgical technologies such as hydrogen-rich, oxygen-rich, and carbon-circulating blast furnaces and pure hydrogen direct reduction. The petrochemical and chemical industries will orderly expand the application proportion of green energy and low-carbon raw materials such as green electricity, green hydrogen, and biomass, and implement process upgrades like new-type catalysis, green synthesis, and high-efficiency separation, to drive the upgrade of calcium carbide method PVC production towards a mercury-free direction. The plan clarifies that hydrogen energy industry should be developed according to local conditions, with breakthroughs in key technologies for clean and low-carbon hydrogen production and application, promotion of hydrogen energy comprehensive application pilot projects, and expansion of the use of clean and low-carbon hydrogen in areas such as industry and transportation. In terms of new energy transportation equipment, the policy will support the development of ships powered by batteries, methanol, and hydrogen, and accelerate the application of new energy in inland waterway vessels; at the same time, orderly develop new energy aircraft such as electric and hydrogen-powered ones, and promote the use of sustainable aviation fuel in domestic civil aircraft. The promotion of energy-saving equipment will also be further intensified. The plan proposes accelerating the R&D and application of advanced products such as high-efficiency energy-saving motors, transformers, industrial heat pumps, cooling and heating equipment, water electrolysis hydrogen production equipment, and information and communication equipment, and strengthening the coordination and matching between energy-saving equipment and related systems. Focusing on cutting-edge technological innovation, the plan will prioritize technologies such as hydrogen production from renewable energy, high-efficiency crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem cells, high-efficiency thin-film batteries, all-solid-state batteries, sodium-ion batteries, green metallurgy, inert anodes, flexible electrolysis, kiln hydrogen calcination, direct crude oil to chemicals, and carbon capture, storage, and utilization. In addition, relevant departments will build a number of pilot-scale verification platforms for clean and low-carbon hydrogen, low-carbon and zero-carbon process reengineering, and high-performance water treatment membranes, and through open and shared pilot-scale service capabilities, reduce the market verification costs of low-carbon technologies. In terms of talent cultivation, the plan encourages qualified universities to set up disciplines and majors related to green design, green manufacturing, hydrogen energy, etc., build industry-education integration training bases, explore the establishment of new professions such as green factory management, and accelerate the cultivation of compound talents with both green low-carbon technology and management capabilities.