On April 9, 2026, the Japanese Cabinet officially approved the latest amendment to the Waste Disposal and Public Cleansing Act (commonly known as the "Waste Cleansing Act"). The core of the amendment is to upgrade metal recycling operations from a notification system to a permit system, and to impose a new obligation requiring confirmation from the Minister of the Environment for scrap metal exports.

LG Energy Solution reported consolidated revenue of 6.6 trillion won in the first quarter, up 1.2% quarter-on-quarter (including approximately 189.8 billion won in North American production incentives). During the same period, it recorded an operating loss of 207.8 billion won. Shipments of pouch-type electric vehicle (EV) batteries declined due to inventory adjustments by major North American customers.

In mid-April, CATL announced plans to invest 30 billion yuan to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary, Times Resources Group, registered in Xiamen and positioned as a professional investment, operation, and management platform in the new energy minerals sector. This major move is not only a key step for CATL in building a closed-loop entire industry chain of "ore — materials — battery — recycling," but will also inject strong momentum into the extraction and reuse of rare and precious metal resources, driving the battery recycling industry from standardized development toward a new phase of technological breakthroughs and scale expansion. The core mission of Times Resources Group is to integrate global critical minerals resources such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt, while expanding into high-quality rare and precious metal mining projects. From an industry perspective, lithium, nickel, and cobalt are core raw materials for power batteries, while rare and precious metals such as gold, silver, and platinum group metals are indispensable in electronic devices and catalysts. Through this 30 billion yuan capital deployment, CATL can both ensure that its primary lithium resources self-supply rate rises above 35% and keep lithium chemicals costs below 50,000 yuan/mt, while also establishing stable raw material connection channels for rare and precious metal regeneration after battery recycling through full industry chain control of mineral resources. More notably, CATL hired Chen Jinghe, founder of Zijin Mining, as a mining consultant, leveraging his extensive experience in mineral exploration and extraction to further optimize resource development processes. This means the upstream extraction segment will place greater emphasis on green and efficient technology applications, such as adopting efficient leaching technology for low-grade ore and comprehensive recovery processes for rare and precious metal associated ore, improving resource utilization rate from the source, laying the raw material foundation for rare and precious metal regeneration in subsequent battery recycling, and achieving synergy between "primary extraction + secondary recycling."

July 30 – Chengxin has locked in ~10 GWh of overseas orders (Europe 40%, Americas 35%, SE Asia 25%), including a GWh project in Germany and a data center project in the US. To address rising lithium costs, it signed a 3-year, 60 GWh sodium-ion battery deal with CATL. After mass production, sodium batteries will offer cost advantages and complement lithium batteries, starting with low-temperature and extreme-environment applications.

July 30 – Hyperstrong (688411.SH) has locked in ~10 GWh of overseas orders (Europe 40%, Americas 35%, SE Asia 25%), including a German GWh project and a US data center project. To counter rising lithium costs, it's advancing sodium-ion batteries via a 3-year, 60 GWh deal with CATL. After mass production, sodium batteries will offer cost advantages and complement lithium batteries, with initial deployment in low-temperature and extreme environments.

According to SMM, the weekly comprehensive operating rate of lead-acid battery enterprises across five provinces was 65.5% from April 24 to April 30, 2026, down 3.09 percentage points WoW. Recently, the traditional off-season trend in the lead-acid battery market continued. With the Labour Day holiday approaching, producers successively planned to take holidays, with most Labour Day breaks lasting 2-5 days. Some enterprises chose to take early holidays or cut production at the month-end of April, leading to an early decline in the weekly operating rate of lead-acid batteries this week. Next week, as the Labour Day holiday period is underway, enterprise holiday time will increase, and the weekly operating rate of lead-acid batteries will weaken further.

This week was the week before the Labour Day holiday. The lead-acid battery market had a strong holiday atmosphere. Pre-holiday purchasing by dealers showed no significant changes. However, due to sluggish consumption in the end-use market, some dealers intended to offer sales promotions on batteries during the Labour Day holiday, while producers made no price adjustments due to cost factors. In addition, most producers planned to take holidays, and pre-holiday stocking demand in the lead market was limited. Combined with lead prices staying high, spot lead trading activity weakened WoW.

With the rapid development of the global NEV industry and the growing embrace of green and low-carbon concepts, the battery recycling industry is transforming from a marginal sector into a "new frontier" in the capital market, demonstrating unprecedented development potential. This industry, once regarded as merely "selling scrap," has now become a core necessity for safeguarding national resource security, implementing the "dual carbon" strategy, and promoting the sustainable development of the new energy industry, ushering in its own golden era. Strong policy support has injected robust momentum into the industry's development. In February 2025, the General Office of the State Council issued the *Action Plan for Improving the NEV Power Battery Recycling and Utilization System*, requiring the acceleration of relevant regulations and rules to standardize recycling and utilization through rule of law. Subsequently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and other departments, jointly issued the *Interim Measures for the Recycling and Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries from NEVs*, setting new requirements across multiple dimensions including power battery traceability, recycling and utilization, and supervision. Driven by both policy and market forces, the battery recycling industry has continued to expand in scale, exhibiting an "explosive" growth trajectory. Currently, the number of battery recycling-related enterprises in China exceeded 200,000. In the first ten months of 2025 alone, over 30,000 new battery recycling-related enterprises were registered, representing a YoY increase of over 15% compared to the same period last year. Top-tier enterprises such as GEM and Tianqi Co., Ltd. have ramped up capacity deployment and capital operations, building competitive barriers through technological upgrades and industry chain extensions. GEM possesses a complete "battery recycling—battery cascade reuse—raw material remanufacturing—material remanufacturing—battery reassembly" full life cycle value chain, with industry-leading scale advantages. It operates 9 major lithium battery recycling bases globally, and its lithium battery recycling volume has accounted for 10% of China's total retired battery volume for consecutive years, ranking first nationwide. As early-stage NEVs gradually retire, the lithium battery recycling industry will accelerate over the next 3 to 5 years, with an annualized growth rate exceeding 50%—a market poised for tenfold growth in 5 years. The industry consensus is that this transformation, jointly driven by price, demand, and policy, is propelling the lithium battery recycling industry from extensive development toward a refined, standardized, and globalized development stage.

The international evaluation firm Sproule ERCE conducted a systematic assessment of lithium resources in the Altmark region using the internationally recognized CIM/NI43-101 standard. The results showed that reserves of 43 million mt LCE drew attention to this mining area in north-central Germany. The EU Critical Raw Materials Act set clear targets for strategic raw materials such as lithium: by 2030, 10% of these raw materials will be mined within Europe, 40% will be processed within Europe, and no more than 65% shall come from any single third country. The existence of the Altmark lithium mine provides a solid foundation for the EU to achieve this goal. Unlike traditional lithium mining methods, Neptune Energy employs an environmentally friendly technology known as "Direct Lithium Extraction." This method requires neither open-pit mining nor evaporation ponds, but instead extracts lithium element directly from underground brine. Despite the bright prospects, there is still a long way to go from resource confirmation to large-scale production. Neptune Energy needs to further complete pilot testing, detailed environmental impact assessments, and a final investment decision. However, there is no doubt that the Altmark lithium mine, like a powerful engine, has already been set in motion. When "Made in Germany" EVs are equipped with batteries made from environmentally friendly lithium "mined on German soil," the global NEV landscape may undergo a new round of reshaping.

In 2025, the global NEV and new-type energy storage markets continued to boom. Chinese lithium battery enterprises, leveraging their technological expertise and scale advantages, continued to dominate the global supply chain.