Today, lithium carbonate rose 5000 yuan and exceeded 470000 lithium metal lithium rose 1.205 million in 2 months! [SMM Express]

SMM March 1: today, the spot price of battery-grade lithium carbonate rose 5000 yuan, the average spot price successfully broke through 470000 yuan, quoted at 473000 yuan / ton, and the spot quotation was as high as 476000 / ton. Since the beginning of the year, the spot price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has risen by 195000 yuan per ton, or 70.14%.

"Click to order to view the spot historical price of SMM new energy products.

And battery-grade lithium hydroxide is not willing to lag behind. Today, the spot price of lithium hydroxide rose 6000 yuan, with an average price of 425500 yuan / ton. Since the beginning of the year, the spot price of battery-grade lithium hydroxide has risen by 203000 yuan per ton, an increase of 91.24%.

The spot price of lithium metal is even more dusty. As of March 1, the average spot price of lithium metal was 2.6 million yuan / ton, up 30, 000 yuan a day. Since the beginning of the year, the spot price of lithium metal has risen 1.205 million yuan / ton, or 86.38%. As for spodumene concentrate (6% last CIF China), as of March 1, the average spot price of spodumene concentrate was $2695 / ton, up $545 or 25.35% from the beginning of the year.

On the news side, at the press conference of the State Information Office held on February 28, Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that this year will focus on meeting the production needs of power batteries, appropriately speed up the development of domestic lithium, nickel and other resources, and crack down on unfair competition such as hoarding and driving up prices. At the same time, improve the power battery recycling system, support efficient disassembly, recycling and other technologies, and constantly improve the recovery ratio and resource utilization efficiency. "View details

This is not the first time this year that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has mentioned speeding up the development of lithium resources. at the press conference on the development of automobile industry and agriculture in 2021 held on January 12, Guo Shougang, deputy director of the first Department of equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also mentioned that it is necessary to strengthen communication and coordination with provinces and cities such as Qinghai, Sichuan, and Jiangxi, and promote the development of domestic lithium resources.

Last night, Western Mining quickly responded to the state's call by issuing an announcement that the company intends to accept the 27% stake in the lithium resources company held by its controlling shareholder, Xikuang Group, to actively participate in the development of lithium resources and intervene in the new materials industry of lithium batteries. The transaction price is 3.334 billion yuan. Upon completion of the deal, Western Mining will own a 27 per cent stake in Lithium Resources. According to the announcement, the lithium resources company is currently mainly engaged in Dongtai Jinel salt lake lithium resources development, processing and production of lithium carbonate products.

It is worth mentioning that lithium mining stocks, which returned strongly yesterday, ushered in a wave of sharp falls today. In this regard, some media believe that the price of lithium carbonate has risen so rapidly in a short period of half a year. It is obvious that it is not enough to explain the rising permeability of terminal vehicles and the pull effect of mid-stream battery manufacturers to expand production. It is suspected that some raw material suppliers and middlemen use the prosperity of the industry to artificially create demand panic and the possibility of hoarding.

Industry insiders believe that the measure taken by the vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on February 28 to "crack down on unfair competition practices such as hoarding and driving up prices" also means that the relevant departments may learn from the experience of dealing with commodity price increases in the second half of last year. While increasing supply, it will also speed up the crackdown on various violations of laws and regulations.

Compared with the previous rapid rise of lithium carbonate, according to the recent SMM survey, the increase of lithium carbonate has slowed down significantly. With different degrees of maintenance and production reduction in the downstream lithium iron phosphate plate, enterprises' enthusiasm for purchasing lithium carbonate has declined; in addition, battery and material enterprises are under the pressure of a surge in costs caused by the high-speed upward price of lithium. Some enterprises adopt the strategy of "abandoning and buying" more than 470000 yuan / ton of lithium carbonate, and the short-term upstream and downstream games are heating up. Under the combined influence of a series of factors, the price increase of lithium carbonate has slowed down recently. "View details

However, considering that it is difficult to alleviate the contradiction between supply and demand in the short term, Northeast Securities said that on the demand side, new production capacity downstream continues to climb, procurement demand is strong, and the smooth transmission of lithium salt prices is expected to continue to rise or continue to be high. On the supply side, the maintenance range of large factories is obvious, some smelters have reduced production due to the influence of the Winter Olympic Games, the supply of lithium ore resources has been tight, and some smelters have stopped production due to lack of ore, the price of lithium resources is high, and the shortage of supply is difficult to alleviate. In the medium to long term, Northeast Securities believes that lithium prices may be high for a long time, and the lithium industry may be high in demeanor or higher than expected.