[LME WEEK] LME to launch Metal contracts for Lithium, Graphite, Manganese and other batteries to seize the opportunity for Electric vehicles

The moves of SHFE and LME have been heading toward different directions recently. As of December 8, LME lead has been falling for five consecutive sessions. SHFE lead, on the other hand, rallied strongly after falling for two days in a row, and rose 1.88% to 15,175 yuan/mt to close the day.

Market focus this week includes the readings of the manufacturing PMI in the Eurozone in November and the Markit manufacturing PMI in the United States in November; the one-year loan market interest rate as of November 22 in China. On the events front, the Federal Reserve FOMC will release the minutes of the monetary policy meeting this Thursday; Bank of England Governor Bailey will deliver a speech this Friday.

The 10th Secondary Lead-acid Battery Industry Summit 2020—held by SMM—took place today, at which SMM senior Pb analyst Xia Wenming gave a speech on the theme of “How China lead market will fare in H2 2020 on the backdrop of oversupply”

Jiangsu Tafel New Energy Technology on May 17 kicked off construction of its phase II and III capacity of a power battery project, which is located at the Jiangning Development Zone, Nanjing.  

Hubei Linuo New Energy Technology has begun trial operations of its phase I capacity of a battery project for commercial new energy vehicles at the Shiyan New Industrial Zone, Hubei province.

China's installed capacity of batteries to power electric vehicles climbed 29.5% from a month ago to 3.6GWh in April, following a surge of 363.2% in the month of March, showed data from the China Automobile Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, suggesting the country’s EV sector continues to recover from the fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Demand for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries in the new energy vehicle market, which enjoy more cost advantage as compared to high-nickel ternary batteries, will likely increase with support from the latest 2020 NEV subsidy policy, under which only passenger cars costing less than 300,000 yuan/unit will receive subsidies. 

Full resumption of industrial production is expected across China on March 15, including producers in Hubei, the epicentre of the coronavirus, the latest SMM survey showed. Companies in Hubei are currently in preparation for the recovery. The operating rates of Chinese cobalt salts plants are expected to rise to normal levels in March, from only 30-40% in February. As of March 11, the rates stood at 50-60% for most cobalt salts mills.

Nickel stocks across LME-approved warehouses gained 2,874 mt on Monday to 69,180 mt

With investment of 68 billion yuan, the battery base started construction in Hangzhou on Mar 25