Prices of the Once Extremely Popular Lithium Hexafluorophosphate Lost More than 82% in a Single Month

SHANGHAI, Apr 28 (SMM) - Driven by robust demand from the new energy vehicle market, prices of lithium hexafluorophosphate sky-rocketed 400% last year, leading the gains among raw materials in the new energy vehicle industry chain. However, affected by the current round of the pandemic, the demand for lithium hexafluorophosphate has continued to weaken since March, and the spot transaction price of lithium hexafluorophosphate in the market has kept going down.

From the perspective of raw materials, the main raw material of lithium hexafluorophosphate is lithium carbonate. According to SMM data, the average price of industrial-grade lithium carbonate has fallen back to 420,000 yuan/mt, which also had a negative impact on the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate.

According to SMM survey, there are a large number of long-term orders in the lithium hexafluorophosphate market. In addition to supply under long-term orders, electrolyte plants will normally work through inventory, causing trades in spot market to decline.  

Previously, some industry insiders predicted that the planned capacity expansion in lithium hexafluorophosphate industry would reach 500,000 mt in the long run, which has far exceeded the demand by 2025. Lithium hexafluorophosphate prices kept falling due to oversupply and the pandemic.

On the supply side, the supply of lithium hexafluorophosphate in the market increased in 2022 with the release of new capacity.

As regarding demand, some car and battery makers were shut down or lowered output due to the pandemic, which sent ripple effect to lithium hexafluorophosphate demand.