Sila Nanotechnologies, Inc. and Georgia Tech Research Corporation filed a Section 337 complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on June 18, alleging that certain anode materials used in battery cells and batteries violate Section 337 of the U.S. Tariff Act of 1930 through their importation, sale, or distribution in the United States. The filing concerns lithium battery anode materials and is currently at the complaint stage pending ITC review.

China's imports of lead-acid batteries in May 2026 amounted to 481,400 units, up 3.28 percentage points MoM and up 13.62 percentage points YoY. Combined imports from January to May 2026 reached 2.2611 million units, down 1.57 percentage points YoY.

[SMM Flash] According to customs data, China's exports of lead-acid batteries in May 2026 reached 20.6522 million units, up 7.73 percentage points MoM and up 2.8 percentage points YoY. Combined exports from January to May 2026 totaled 85.9478 million units, down 8.86 percentage points YoY.

In May 2026, China imported 131,000 mt of phosphate ore, down 36.4% from April, with the average price easing 2.6% to $93/mt.

In recent years, Indonesia's energy transition has shown clear signs of acceleration. As the government sets more ambitious renewable energy targets, and as mining decarbonisation, island-based power system upgrades, floating PV project development and local manufacturing build-out continue to advance, the long-term growth potential of Indonesia's solar PV, energy storage and microgrid markets is opening up further.

The European Commission has approved Slovakia’s EUR 1 billion state aid scheme to support clean technology manufacturing, including key components and related critical raw materials. The scheme covers strategic projects in batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, electrolyzers and carbon capture, usage and storage, in line with the EU’s NZIA objectives. Approved under the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework, the aid will be provided through grants and income tax relief to support investment by SMEs and large enterprises until Dec. 31, 2030.

Bangladesh has announced a major policy package to accelerate solar development, including a 0% tax rate for the solar sector until 2035 and a 5% tax rebate on consumers’ solar electricity bill payments. The government will also reduce import duty, regulatory duty, supplementary duty and advance tax to 0% on key solar components, including inverters, lithium cells, lithium-ion batteries, PV modules, mounting structures, BESS, battery management systems, solar DC cables and battery thermal management systems. The policy aims to attract investment and support Bangladesh’s target of meeting 20% of electricity demand from renewables by 2030 and 30%-50% from clean energy by 2050. SMM believes lower taxes and equipment import costs will support utility-scale and distributed solar development, while improving the attractiveness of local renewable energy equipment manufacturing.

Iran’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization has submitted a proposal to deploy 15GW of small-scale solar plants across residential, commercial and agricultural sectors. SATBA said both domestic manufacturing and equipment imports will be needed to support rapid installations, while additional financing support for home solar systems has also been proposed. The program will focus on rooftop, home, commercial and agricultural PV systems, with standardized packages including solar panels, hybrid inverters and batteries. SMM believes Iran is shifting part of its renewable strategy from large-scale plants toward distributed and small-scale solar-plus-storage systems, with equipment supply, financing mechanisms and installation training becoming key factors for implementation.

SMM, June 18: This week, SMM #1 lead ingot prices fluctuated upward from early to mid-week, then came under pressure and pulled back near the weekend. Driven by tight raw material inventories and bullish sentiment on lead prices, a small number of secondary lead smelters slightly raised their purchase prices for scrap batteries, while most producers kept their offers flat with last week. The industry remained in losses, with enterprises unwilling to actively raise prices to source materials, and the market largely adopted a wait-and-see approach. With lead prices weak and downstream consumption sluggish, smelters, despite low raw material inventories, had no incentive to raise prices for restocking. The anti-decline property of scrap battery prices became evident, and smelters also held a wait-and-see stance on price adjustments during the lead price uptrend. Next week, with smelters simultaneously undergoing production cuts, shutdowns, and resumptions, demand for scrap battery feedstock is mixed between bullish and bearish factors, and scrap battery purchase prices are expected to remain stable in the near term.

On June 18, GEM disclosed that its main business growth drivers include focusing on core businesses such as key metal recycling and extraction, power lithium battery recycling, and new energy material core manufacturing. In the ternary precursor business, the company focuses on expanding the high-end product market. Regarding ternary cathode materials, the company focuses on high-profit segments such as small power applications, planning shipments to exceed 35,000 tons in 2026 and 60,000 tons in 2028. At the same time, the company is actively positioning itself in next-generation battery material technologies. High-nickel, ultra-high-nickel ternary cathode materials, and lithium-rich manganese-based cathode materials are considered the mainstream research directions for future solid-state batteries. The company has teamed up with Ningbo Eastern University of Technology and the academician team of Sun Xueliang to promote the industrialization of related technologies.