Lithium-ion battery output increases in Sep

The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) reported that crude steel output across major mills in China averaged 2.27 million mt per day in the first ten days of April, up 2.88% from late March and up 16.86% from the same period a year ago.

The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) reported that crude steel output across major mills in China averaged 2.14 million mt per day in the second 10 days of December, down 0.04% from early December and up 13.49% from the same period a year ago.

China produced about 3,500 mt in metal content of cobalt sulphate in March, 94% higher on the month, showed SMM data, as cobalt salt producers resumed 70-80% of their capacity last month amid a slowdown in the spread of the coronavirus in China. 

Inventory pressure of lithium carbonate, a raw material for digital and power batteries, may continue to mount in April as Chinese lithium salt producers have not yet planned to wind down production. Elevated inventories together with limited downsides in lithium carbonate prices with support from costs, however, may trigger output cut in the second quarter. 

Planned output of construction steel rebar across China’s major blast furnace steelmakers in April stood roughly flat from the actual production in March, as the impact of maintenance may offset the increase in output driven by higher profits. 

The global widespread of COVID-19 has forced many countries to enforce stringent containment measures which result in a heavy impact on global economic activity. Over the past few months, we saw serious disruption of manpower, transportation and production in China. We are now seeing these scenarios happening around the world.

The widespread coronavirus has deterred production of NEVs in the European countries, and this may impact the global prospects for NEV production and take a toll on the consumption of raw materials. Last week, bearish sentiment continued to prevail in the cobalt market, which depressed downstream purchases and added to upstream inventory pressure. Sluggish demand reduced prices of battery-grade lithium carbonate, which were underpinned by costs, while fundamentals supported prices of industrial-grade lithium carbonate. 

Industrial activity levels outside of central China continues to improve as workers return from quarantine periods and logistics pressures eased.

The year-over-year increase accelerated from a rise of 6.5% in the first eight months of the year

Stable demand from battery anode will cap the decline in lithium salt prices