SK On will transition to a unified production system centered on its SK Battery America (SKBA) operations in Georgia to improve efficiency in North America. According to the company on the 3rd, starting April 6 (local time), production volumes from SKBA’s first plant will be transferred to the second plant. In addition, part of the second plant’s production lines will be converted from electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing to energy storage system (ESS) production. The Georgia Plant 1 has an annual capacity of 10GWh and began commercial operations in the first quarter of 2022, while Plant 2 has a capacity of 12GWh and started operations in the fourth quarter of 2022.

LG Energy Solution announced on April 3 that it has joined the automotive software open marketplace platform SDVerse, becoming the first battery manufacturer to participate. SDVerse is a B2B vehicle software platform founded by General Motors, Magna International, and Wipro. The platform provides an open ecosystem where automakers, global suppliers, and software developers can trade software solutions, supporting the transition toward software-defined vehicles (SDVs).

According to Westwater Resources on the 3rd, it received a contract termination notice from SK On on March 31 (local time). Under the agreement, SK On had planned to source up to 34,000 tons of natural graphite produced at Westwater’s Kellyton facility in Alabama between 2027 and 2031, but the plan has been canceled following the termination.

This week, against the backdrop of fluctuating upward copper prices, the secondary copper industry chain showed a complex situation in which extremely tight upstream raw material supply coexisted with persistent negative margins for downstream finished products. In the secondary copper rod market, SMM data showed that the operating rate fell further to 5.45% this week, down 0.38 percentage points MoM and 25.43 percentage points YoY

The final March S&P Global services PMI released by the US came in at 49.8, a reading that was not only below the preliminary 51.1, but also marked the first contraction since January 2023. During this period, growth in new orders fell to its lowest point in nearly two years, while export trade conditions deteriorated further compared with February. Meanwhile, the final composite PMI was confirmed at 50.3, significantly below the preliminary 51.4 and the lowest level since September 2023.

The conflict in the Middle East has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, triggering a سلسلة of chain reactions: global shipping costs have surged sharply, and war risk insurance premiums for vessels have also risen rapidly. Moreover, shipping companies must also weigh freight rate factors. According to industry insiders, current freight rates have already skyrocketed to 11-12 times their original level.

At present, battery cell capacity for energy storage in China has entered a state of broad-based undersupply, with order schedules for energy storage battery cells at some top-tier enterprises even extending to the end of Q1 2027. Affected by this supply-demand gap, China’s energy storage battery cell segment is ushering in a new wave of capacity expansion, with many enterprises announcing large-scale expansion plans.

Data released by the CPCA showed that retail sales in China’s passenger vehicle market were 1.657 million units in March, down 15% YoY from the same period last year; for Q1 as a whole, total retail sales reached 4.236 million units, down 17% YoY. Specifically, in the new energy market, retail sales were 784,000 units in March, down 21% YoY; Q1 total retail sales were 1.844 million units, down 24% YoY.

According to information from the Ministry of Commerce, in the first three months of this year, the consumer goods trade-in program delivered remarkable results, with sales exceeding 433.17 billion yuan and benefiting a total of 60.933 million person-times. Specifically, automobile trade-ins contributed 228.69 billion yuan in sales, while sales of new purchases under the home appliance trade-in program, as well as digital and smart products, totaled 204.48 billion yuan.

According to data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, US non-farm payrolls increased significantly by 178,000 in March, far exceeding market expectations of 60,000 and reaching the highest level since December 2024. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in March also edged down to 4.3%, compared with market expectations for it to remain unchanged at 4.4%. In addition, non-farm payrolls for January and February were revised down by a combined 7,000. Data from CME FedWatch showed that the probability of the US Fed keeping policy unchanged within the year had exceeded 90%.