SMM December 27th: recently, the rapid upward rise of lithium prices has once again triggered heated debate in the industry. At present, there is news on the market that the third round of lithium salt price increase has hit, and some lithium enterprises have received a quotation of 300000 / ton lithium carbonate. In this context, according to SMM spot prices, the first trading day of this week, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate ushered in another rise, an one-day price increase of 5000 yuan / ton.

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According to SMM research, some enterprises in Qinghai have stopped signing orders recently and are expected to start shipping in January with sporadic quotations. In addition, near the end of the year, the upstream enterprise capital demand is high, the downstream stock mood is heavy, also stimulated the lithium carbonate price to continue to rise. "View details
It is worth mentioning that driven by the explosive demand downstream, the supply of lithium salt is insufficient, and the upstream enterprises basically implement long orders. Under the background that the supply of lithium salt falls short of demand and the price rises one after another, lithium salt companies with more say are not willing to accept long orders. Some lithium salt companies even boldly predicted that "lithium concentrate will usher in the most scarce moment next year."
The price of lithium metal also loosened in the future. As of December 27, the average spot price of lithium metal was 1.205 million yuan / ton, with a daily increase of 30, 000 yuan / ton, an increase of as much as 2.55%.

Not only that, driven by the rapid rise in the price of lithium carbonate, the price of lithium hydroxide also followed Synchronize last time. As of December 27th, the average spot price of domestic battery-grade lithium hydroxide rose to 210000 yuan / ton, up 5000 yuan / ton in a single day.
According to SMM estimates, the gap between supply and demand of lithium carbonate in 2021 is about 36000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent, equivalent to a gap of 11%. Structural shortages have caused some market behavior to push up the price of lithium carbonate. In 2022, under the expectation of the rapid expansion of the global lithium power industry, SMM expects that the global and Chinese lithium carbonate gap may be further enlarged. "View details
For the future price trend of lithium salt, many institutions also make optimistic expectations. In its recent research report, Zhongyuan Securities predicted that, combined with capacity release, enterprise production costs, downstream demand growth and industry development trends, the overall price of battery-grade lithium carbonate is expected to fluctuate upward in the short term, while lithium hydroxide prices are expected to continue to fluctuate upward.

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