Decision to change, clarify Fastmarkets’ NCM black mass payables indicators

This decision follows an extensive consultation process originally launched on February 25 and which was open until March 25. This was then extended to April 10 with a decision due by April 15.

Increased import flows into China since summer 2025, together with higher black mass quality from investments in technology by some producers, have led to changes in specifications of black mass traded on the spot market.

The proposed changes are not expected to make material differences to payables reported by Fastmarkets in the short term, given that the majority of data received by Fastmarkets already falls into the newly-amended specification ranges.

Prices affected by the quality-based methodology changes are:

MB-BMS-0001 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, nickel, max 5% moisture, cif South Korea, % payable LME Nickel cash official price
MB-BMS-0002 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, cobalt, max 5% moisture, cif South Korea, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0003 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, lithium, max 5% moisture, 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, max 5% moisture, exw Europe, % payable LME Nickel cash official price
MB-BMS-0005 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, cobalt, domestic, max 5% moisture, exw Europe, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0007 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, nickel, max 5% moisture, cif Southeast Asia, % payable LME Nickel cash official price
MB-BMS-0008 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, cobalt, max 5% moisture, cif Southeast Asia, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0009 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, lithium, max 5% moisture, cif Southeast Asia, % 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, max 5% moisture, exw USA, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0015 Black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, nickel, max 5% moisture, exw USA, % payable LME Nickel cash official price
Fastmarkets has decided to make the below changes to its methodology specifications for the “Quality” field for all of the listed prices to the below, with changes in italics:
“Nickel and cobalt-rich black mass, with metal content of 15-25% nickel, 3-10% cobalt and 3-4.5% lithium. Minimum total cobalt and nickel content of 20%. Max 2% aluminium, max 2% copper, max 1% iron, max 2% fluorine. Maximum 5% moisture content. Materials falling outside these parameters may be normalized based on market participant feedback.”

Further decisions made during consultation were:

Fastmarkets decided to remove nickel-cobalt aluminium (NCA) materials from all of the above assessments scope and names. NCA material is rarely heard traded on the spot market in Europe, the US or Asia, according to sources, and Fastmarkets’ 2% aluminium content limit already excludes NCA-heavy assays.

The proposal to make payables indicators based only on production scrap and not end of life materials was not accepted due to risks in squeezing liquidity volumes and rising end of life battery supply in some jurisdictions.

Datapoints in the CIF South Korea market shall only be accepted if the material is being consumed by a South Korean hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical refiner. Material for trans-shipment from South Korea will not be included.

The EXW Europe payables will no longer refer to being “domestic” material because of the very small number of transactions to domestic consumers. Most material is instead sold for export into Asia or North America, according to sources.

A note will be added to the methodology document of the EXW Europe payables stating that these prices only cover hazardous waste-origin materials. This will also affect the price: MB-BMS-0006 Black mass, LCO, payable indicator, cobalt, domestic, max 5% moisture, exw Europe, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end).

Due to changes in cobalt content in our methodologies, Fastmarkets also proposes changes to the names of the inferred prices MB-BMS-0012 Black mass, NCM/NCA, inferred, cif South Korea, $/tonne and MB-BMS-0013 Black mass, NCM/NCA, inferred, exw Europe, $/tonne. This is to clarify that these are for “high cobalt” materials, due to the inferred price being based on an assay of 10% cobalt — which now becomes the top end of the quantity of cobalt allowed in Fastmarkets’ NCM payables for these markets.

Given the changes, the names of the affected prices will change to the below:

MB-BMS-0001 Black mass, NCM, payable indicator, nickel, max 5% moisture, cif South Korea, % payable LME Nickel cash official price
MB-BMS-0002 Black mass, NCM, payable indicator, cobalt, max 5% moisture, cif South Korea, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0003 Black mass, NCM, payable indicator, lithium, max 5% moisture, 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, payable indicator, nickel, max 5% moisture, exw Europe, % payable LME Nickel cash official price
MB-BMS-0005 Black mass, NCM, payable indicator, cobalt, max 5% moisture, exw Europe, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0006 Black mass, LCO, payable indicator, cobalt, max 5% moisture, exw Europe, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0007 Black mass, NCM, payable indicator, nickel, max 5% moisture, cif Southeast Asia, % payable LME Nickel cash official price
MB-BMS-0008 Black mass, NCM, payable indicator, cobalt, max 5% moisture, cif Southeast Asia, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0009 Black mass, NCM, payable indicator, lithium, max 5% moisture, cif Southeast Asia, % payable Fastmarkets’ lithium carbonate 99.5% Li2CO3 min, battery grade, spot prices cif China, Japan & Korea
MB-BMS-0012 Black mass, NCM/NCA, inferred, cif South Korea, $/tonne to: Black mass, NCM, high cobalt, inferred, cif South Korea, $/tonne
MB-BMS-0013 Black mass, NCM/NCA, inferred, exw Europe, $/tonne to: Black mass, NCM, high cobalt, inferred, exw Europe, $/tonne
MB-BMS-0014 Black mass, NCM, payable indicator, cobalt, max 5% moisture, exw USA, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end)
MB-BMS-0015 Black mass, NCM, payable indicator, nickel, max 5% moisture, exw USA, % payable LME Nickel cash official price

The amendments will take place on April 22, 2026.

To provide feedback on these prices please email pricing@fastmarkets.com and metalsrecycling@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading “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.

To see all Fastmarkets pricing methodology and specification documents, go to the Fastmarkets methodology page.