Lithium Americas Sees Argentina Mine Decision In 2012

As of January 26, China battery-grade lithium carbonate offers continued to rise, according to SMM prices.

The average monthly price of battery-grade lithium carbonate was 236,478 yuan/mt in December 2021, up 20% on the month. The prices are likely to rise further as the downstream restocking extends.

Cobalt and lithium were undoubtedly the topic of the year which featured recovery and growth. As the shortage of upstream minerals drove up the prices of cobalt and lithium salt, many midstream and downstream enterprises have embarked on the road of competing with upstream miners for cobalt and lithium resources in order to control their costs.

The market sentiment of lithium ore increased further. SQM, the world's second-largest lithium miner, predicted that the average price of lithium will rise by nearly 50% compared to Q3 in Q4.

The new production capacity of lithium resources will be put into operation intensively after 2022-2023, and the production may be lower than expected. It is expected that there will still be a supply shortage of 24,000 mt LCE in 2022.

Most of the companies that extract lithium from salt lakes in South America sell lithium products mainly through long-term contract. And selling prices were low for orders executed in the first half of 2021, most of which were signed at the end of 2020, according to CITIC Securities.

China has recently released the winter heating season policies for 2020/21, and while the initial view is that supply disruption may be less this year, there are still question marks over the impacts on demand.

China imported 30,655 mt of lithium carbonate in 2017, up 41% year on year, according to a report by research house Shenzhen Gaogong Industry Research (GGII).

The average cost of lithium-ion battery set is likely to be halved to $100/kWh by 2025.

The following table is offers of minor metals in Europe on Oct.20