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. 

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.

Prices of industrial-grade lithium carbonate eased on Monday March 30 after held firm for most of March, showed SMM assessments. Battery-grade lithium carbonate prices, however, are expected to face..

About 1.2 million mt of manganese ore production in South Africa is expected to be affected by the 21-day nationwide lockdown aimed at containing the coronavirus, a local trader estimates. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the three-week lockdown on Monday March 23, including closing mines, starting from midnight Thursday March 26.

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. 

China’s crude steel production increased 5% year on year to 74.8 million mt in February, according to calculations by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel) based on a China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) production estimate.

China’s production of primary aluminium in the January-to-February period rose 2.4% year on year to 5.85 million mt, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Monday. NBS data also showed that China's production of 10 nonferrous metals, including copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and nickel, totaled 9.35 million mt in the first two months of 2020, up 2.2% from the same period last year.

Prices of spot manganese have not received significant support from the resumption of downstream demand and have extended their slide this week. SMM expects the prices will remain weak with pressure from elevated inventories of #200 cold- and hot- rolled stainless steel.

SMM data showed that China produced 683,100 mt of copper cathode last month, down 5.9% from January and 5.07% from February 2019.

Last year, Baowu generated 556.6 billion yuan in revenue and saw profits grow 690,000 million yuan from 2018 to 34.52 billion yuan, according to the company’s report.