Against the backdrop of the US accelerating the build-out of its domestic battery supply chain while facing persistent reliance on foreign sources for critical minerals, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the US Department of Commerce issued an interim final rule on August 5, 2026, imposing export controls on certain recycled battery materials. The most impactful measure is the temporary export restriction on black mass, an intermediate material from lithium battery recycling. Rather than a complete cutoff of lithium battery-related material exports, this move precisely targets recycled stage products rich in lithium, cobalt, and nickel, aiming to intercept at the source the rapidly growing domestic pool of retired battery resources.

On August 4, news emerged that the signing ceremony for the cooperation project between BTR Group and Wuchuang Recycling was held in Ningxiang City, Hunan Province. This collaboration, leveraging BTR Group's technological and channel advantages in the anode material field and Wuchuang Recycling's supporting infrastructure in the waste lithium battery recycling industry, will further complement the downstream material segment of Ningxiang's power battery recycling industry chain. This will enhance industrial synergies and inject new momentum into the development of the green economy.

In 2026, as restored lithium iron phosphate (LFP) capacity expands from 150,000–160,000 tons to 170,000–180,000 tons, traditional hydrometallurgical LFP recycling companies are facing a wave of profit and competitive landscape reshaping driven by rivalry between different technological routes.

With the booming development of the new energy vehicle industry, China's first wave of power batteries has entered a large-scale retirement phase. Recently, lithium battery recycling projects have been intensively launched across multiple regions nationwide, covering every link of the industrial chain — from dismantling and crushing to hydrometallurgy, from cascade utilization to material regeneration.

With the vigorous development of the NEV industry, China's first batch of power batteries entered a large-scale "retirement period." Recently, lithium battery recycling projects were intensively launched nationwide, from dismantling and crushing to hydrometallurgy, from second-life application to material regeneration, comprehensively accelerating the layout of all links in the industry chain.

On July 30, 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued an announcement abolishing the second-life application clauses in the Industry Standard Conditions for Comprehensive Utilization of Used NEV Power Batteries (2024 Edition). It will no longer carry out announcement management for second-life battery producers, and all such producers previously included in the announcement list were removed.

The Weifang Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau has recently published the public notice of the Environmental Impact Assessment acceptance for the "50,000 t/a Lithium Battery Material Recycling Project" of Weifang Chuanghai New Materials Co., Ltd. The project is located in the Changyi Longchi Chemical Industry Park, Weifang, Shandong, within the existing site of Haineng Chemical. It covers an area of 50 mu (approx. 3.3 hectares), and will be built after demolishing the existing hardware warehouse. New facilities including a production workshop, a comprehensive warehouse, a control room, and an electrical distribution room, totaling 9,000 square metres, will be constructed. The process involves acid leaching, filtration and impurity removal, iron phosphate synthesis, lithium precipitation and purification, and evaporation crystallisation of battery black mass, enabling comprehensive resource utilisation of spent lithium iron phosphate battery black mass. Upon completion, the project is expected to produce 8,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate, 10,000 tonnes of anhydrous iron phosphate, and 32,000 tonnes of dihydrate iron phosphate annually. The total investment is estimated at RMB 1.011 billion, with environmental protection investment of RMB 1 million, accounting for 0.1% of the total. The construction period is 6 months.

Recently, the National Environmental Information Disclosure Platform for Construction Projects released the first public notice regarding the environmental impact assessment of Jiangsu Chenfeng Renewable Resources Co., Ltd.'s annual 30,000-ton lithium battery recycling and reuse project, soliciting public comments and suggestions. The project is a new build with a total investment of 100 million yuan. Upon completion, it is expected to produce annually: 2,970 tons of anode graphite materials; 2,565 tons of copper; 1,569 tons of aluminum; 1,710 tons of steel; and 6,840 tons of crude black powder and lithium iron phosphate black powder, the latter processed through oxygen-atmosphere lithium extraction conversion, blending, drying granulation, solid-phase calcination, and other processes.

Announcement No. 20 of 2026 has officially come into effect, clarifying that China will resume levying consumption tax on lithium-ion batteries from September 1, 2026. The policy adopts a tiered tax rate mechanism: the period from September 2026 to August 2027 will serve as a policy transition period, with the consumption tax rate applied at 2%; from September 1, 2027, the rate will be officially raised to 4%.

In the first half of 2026, the price trends of the three major black mass categories diverged significantly. LFP black mass was highly correlated with the spot and futures prices of lithium carbonate. Ternary battery powder, supported by the multi-metal value of nickel, cobalt, and lithium, exhibited a "high-then-low, wide-range oscillation" pattern.