Average Price of Lithium Metal Rose above 2 Million Yuan per Metric Ton

SHANGHAI, Feb 9 (SMM) - According to SMM Prices, the intraday domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate was offered between 374,000-382,000 yuan/mt, an average 378,000 yuan/mt, up 6,000 yuan/mt or 1.61% from yesterday.

The prices of lithium hydroxide also extended yesterday’s gains with a daily increase of 6,000 yuan/mt or 1.97%, and stood at 310,500 yuan/mt.

The prices of lithium metal, which recorded a gain of 30,000 yuan/mt in the last trading day, rose again by another 40,000 yuan/mt or 2.04% to an average of 2 million yuan/mt.

For spodumene concentrate (6%, CIF China), the average price rose US$55/mt to US$2,635/mt, an increase of 2.13% on a daily basis.

On the news front, China Mineral Resources and Ganfeng Lithium both released news about their new deployment in terms of lithium mines.

In order to increase the company's lithium reserves and improve the self-sufficiency rate of raw materials for lithium salt business, China Mineral Resources announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, China Mineral (Hong Kong) Rare Metals, has signed a Sales Agreement of Shares and Creditor’s Rights with African Metals Management Services Ltd ("AMMS") and Southern African Metals & Minerals Ltd ("SAMM") to acquire 100% of the shares of African Minerals Ltd and Amzim Minerals Ltd jointly held by AMMS and SAMM for a base consideration of US$180 million in cash.

Ganfeng Lithium said that the company and its wholly-owned subsidiary Ganfeng International signed a Cooperation Agreement with PMI, demanding that PMI would provide Ganfeng Lithium with the spodumene underwritten in the Mt Marion spodumene project, and Ganfeng Lithium is responsible for the sales of the lithium compounds processed from the spodumene.

According to SMM's recent research, lithium hydroxide manufacturers mostly conducted overhaul in January, which significantly reduced the supply; while the new production lines are still in the process of ramping up the output, hence the supply increment will be limited.

SMM expects that the supply of lithium hydroxide will still be affected by the overhaul in February, and the output of lithium hydroxide is expected to decrease by 9.6% MoM in February 2022.