[SMM data] output of new energy cobalt and lithium products in March 2021

Unit: metal ton / physical ton

Cobalt sulfate:

In March 2021, China produced 4310 metal tons of cobalt sulfate, an increase of 19.2% from the previous month and 22.6% from the same period last year. In March, although the stock of raw materials in some enterprises was tight, the production schedule decreased; some enterprises switched some production lines to cobalt sulfate due to increased customer demand for cobalt sulfate, resulting in an increase in supply. According to the recent environmental supervision in Jiangxi, some smelting enterprises have reduced their start-up, and the supply of cobalt sulfate is expected to decrease; in addition, Digital 3C has entered the off-season of procurement, and the output of some enterprises preparing cobalt tetroxide for their own use has been reduced, and the supply of cobalt sulfate is expected to decline in April.

Lithium carbonate:

In March 2021, China produced about 17570 tons of lithium carbonate, an increase of 48.5% month-on-month and 32.5% over the same period last year, with the increase mainly coming from Jiangxi and Sichuan regions. Among them, the output increment of Jiangxi is climbing in the capacity of mica lithium carbonate. At present, the downstream of lithium carbonate supply in Jiangxi is mainly concentrated in the lithium iron phosphate and lithium manganate market, so it is mainly quasi-electric carbon and industrial carbon production. There is substitute processing in some parts of Sichuan, so the overall output has not been affected by the lack of ore, there is a significant increase compared with February, and the smelter basically returns to normal production after the completion of annual maintenance. The domestic smelting end is expected to continue to release volume in April, and the increment will mainly come from Jiangxi and Qinghai. Production is expected to be 18730 tons in April, an increase of 6.6 per cent from the previous month.

Cathode material:

In March 2021, the output of ternary materials in China was about 28725 tons, an increase of 7.5 percent over the previous month and 130 percent over the same period last year. In March 2021, the output of lithium manganate was 8700 tons, an increase of 131.7% over the previous month. The main reason is that there are many enterprises that stopped production in February, and almost all production resumed at the beginning of March, coupled with the increase in the sample of research enterprises. The output of ternary materials and lithium iron phosphate was 29000 tons and 23000 tons, up 12% and 5% from the previous month. The demand of power market in March is still good, with increments both at home and abroad, in which the increment of high nickel overseas is obvious, which drives the increase of the output of San Yuan 8 series products. Iron lithium enterprises basically produce at full capacity. Considering the limited production capacity of iron phosphate and lithium iron phosphate enterprises, it will take time to expand production, and the output will increase slightly.

Remarks: cobalt sulfate is in metal tons.

Research methodology

1. Research methods

SMM production research is conducted by professional analysts by telephone, field research and other methods, regular monthly tracking of Chinese metal production enterprises, and to issue China's metal production report.

In the process of research, ensure the basic coverage proportion of the sample, and continue to expand; at the same time, consider the capacity scale, regional distribution, the nature of the enterprise and other detailed factors to reasonably select and distribute the sample, so that each sub-data is equally representative.

The production data include the output of last month (initial value), the output of the month before last month (revised) and the production schedule forecast of that month's output. In general, SMM makes less correction to the output, that is, the correction value = the initial value, but still retains the possibility of correction.

Before the 10th of each month, it will be released to the public through the official website of SMM (www.smm.cn), Wechat and Subscription account (Nonferrous Today), mobile phone station (m.smm.cn) and other official channels.

2. Sample introduction