Flash: China to add 78,000 mt of lithium hydroxide capacity

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has held discussions with some lithium salt companies on the issue of surging lithium prices.

SMM data shows that the domestic spot quotations for battery-grade lithium carbonate stood at 460,000-468,000 yuan/mt as of February 25, with the average price at 464,000 yuan/mt, up 2,000 yuan/mt.

Boosted by the global demand for NEVs and the release of the demand in the energy storage market, the global demand for lithium resources will reach about 1.72 million mt of LCE in 2025, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 33%.

Overseas cobalt prices were relatively stable during the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, and there were few cobalt salt transactions heard in the market. And the prices remained unchanged from the pre-CNY holiday level.

The global lithium resources will present a supply deficit of 9%-12% in 2021-2022, and the users have to rely on raw material inventory due to the raw material shortages.

China exported 5,973 mt of lithium hydroxide in November, a month-on-month decrease of 4%, but year-on-year increase of 13%. Among them, South Korea imported 3,245 mt, down 22% month-on-month, and Japan imported 2,633 mt, up 31% on the month.

The five-year compound growth rate of global lithium carbonate smelting capacity is expected to stand at about 20.5% while the five-year compound growth rate of global lithium hydroxide smelting capacity is estimated to be 34.3%.

The Canada-based Millennial Lithium Corp and Lithium Americas (LAC) jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive purchase agreement on November 17, 2021 for Lithium Americas to acquire all of Millennial's shares for a total consideration of approximately $400 million. Based on the closing price of LAC on November 16, 2021, Millennial shareholders will own approximately 9.1% equity of LAC.

China’s copper cathode output stood at 789,400 mt in October, down 1.7% month on month and 3.9% year on year.

In the early morning of October 5, Chengxin Lithium sent its first batch of overseas project team in 2021 to the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP).