Open consultation on Fastmarkets’ black mass price assessment specifications

Fastmarkets is inviting feedback on the methodology specifications on most of its black mass payables indicators following recent changes to quality and moisture content of materials being traded on the spot market.

The purpose of this review is to ensure that the assessments continue to accurately reflect prevailing market conditions in the rapidly-changing black mass markets.

We welcome feedback from industry participants on potential amendments to the specifications of these prices.

Changes to scrap origin for reasons such as rising end of life materials mean that greater volumes of black mass are being seen with higher moisture content from origins such as the US and Europe, and often being sold at discounted payables to low-moisture materials, according to market sources.

This is because major consumers in markets like South Korea prefer to purchase low-moisture materials to optimize their refining process and to avoid paying for large volumes of water to be shipped in containers, sources said.

Some South Korean consumers who do not have any process to dry materials themselves choose to send wet black mass to tolling pre-treatment partners in the domestic market to reduce moisture content.

Fastmarkets’ payables for nickel cobalt manganese/nickel cobalt aluminium (NCM/NCA) black mass CIF South Korea and CIF Southeast Asia are only accurate for materials which are dry black mass, with low moisture, but Fastmarkets has become aware of producers or traders using these payables to sell their high-moisture materials.

As a result, Fastmarkets proposes to set a clear moisture limit to the materials allowed under our methodology specifications for the CIF South Korea and CIF Southeast Asia markets.

In the case of the EXW Europe and EXW US markets, there is currently no moisture requirement in the specifications. But Fastmarkets will consult with market participants to ascertain whether to add moisture content standards to these methodologies.

Fastmarkets will also utilize the opportunity of the open methodology review to consult on contents of cobalt in its NCM/NCA assessments for CIF South Korea, CIF Southeast Asia, EXW Europe and EXW US markets.

It will also consult on the volumes of NCA materials currently being traded on the spot market, with a view to potentially narrowing the methodology to include only NCM materials.

The price assessments covered by the review shall be:

MB-BMS-0001 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, nickel, cif South Korea, % payable LME Nickel cash official price
MB-BMS-0002 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, cobalt, cif South Korea, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0003 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, lithium, cif South Korea, % payable Fastmarkets’ lithium carbonate 99.5% Li2CO3 min, battery grade, spot prices cif China, Japan & Korea
MB-BMS-0004 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, nickel, domestic, exw Europe, % payable LME Nickel cash official price
MB-BMS-0005 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, cobalt, domestic, exw Europe, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0006 Black mass, LCO, payable indicator, cobalt, domestic, exw Europe, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0007 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, nickel, cif Southeast Asia, % payable LME Nickel cash official price
MB-BMS-0008 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, cobalt, cif Southeast Asia, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0009 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, lithium, cif Southeast Asia, % payable Fastmarkets’ lithium carbonate 99.5% Li2CO3 min, battery grade, spot prices cif China, Japan & Korea
MB-BMS-0010 Black mass, LCO, payable indicator, cobalt, cif South Korea, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0011 Black mass, LCO, payable indicator, lithium, cif South Korea, % payable Fastmarkets’ lithium carbonate 99.5% Li2CO3 min, battery grade, spot prices cif China, Japan & Korea
MB-BMS-0014 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, cobalt, domestic, exw USA, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0015 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, nickel, domestic, exw USA, % payable LME Nickel cash official price

You can find the current methodology for all of Fastmarkets’ black mass prices here: https://www.fastmarkets.com/methodology/metals/non-ferrous-scrap/

These prices are a part of the Base Metals Physical Prices, Minor Metals Physical Prices, and Industrial Minerals Physical Prices package.

This consultation, which is open until October 20, 2025, seeks to ensure that our methodologies continue to reflect the physical market under indexation, in compliance with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) principles for Price Reporting Agencies (PRAs). This includes all elements of our pricing process, our price specifications and publication frequency.

To provide feedback on this index, or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter to this index, please contact Lee Allen by email at: pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading “FAO: Lee Allen, re: black mass methodology review.”

Please indicate if comments are confidential. Fastmarkets will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.

Fastmarkets will publish the outcome of this methodology review by October 23, 2025, including a summary of the feedback – with the exception of those responses marked as confidential. Any proposals to make material changes, discontinue or launch prices will involve a separate market consultation, the length of which will depend on how substantial the change is.

To see all Fastmarkets pricing methodology and specification documents, go to https://www.fastmarkets.com/methodology.