Crude Nickel Cobalt Hydroxide standard

The “Crude Nickel Cobalt Hydroxide” standard is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The purpose of this policy is to regulate products obtained by wet enrichment processes such as pretreatment, leaching, impurity removal, and precipitation of lithium-ion battery waste containing nickel and cobalt elements. These products can be used as raw materials for producing nickel-cobalt-manganese composite hydroxides, lithium nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide, nickel or cobalt chemical salts, and other related materials. 

The MIIT national standard (YS/T 1460-2021), released in 2021 and effective from 2022, clarifies the treatment of black mass in China. This standard pertains to “crude nickel-cobalt hydroxide” produced from lithium battery scrap, and products meeting these standards can be imported under HS75012010, “nickel hydrometallurgical intermediate,” and HS81052010, “cobalt hydrometallurgical intermediate.” In December 2023, the government issued a policy under HS 38249999 to announce that as of January 2024, black mass can officially be imported as “crude nickel-cobalt hydroxide”. Import tariffs on the material was also reduced from 6.5% to 3%. 

Types of black mass wastes will fall into these categories.

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