[SMM Analysis] Cobalt Sulfate production in China was flat in November 2018 compared with the previous month.

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

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.

China’s rare earth mining and smelting/separation quotas stood at 168,000 mt and 162,000 mt respectively in 2021, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

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.

Baosteel Desheng, a subsidiary of China Baowu Iron and Steel Group, invested 13.6 billion yuan to build a fine stainless steel green industry base in 2018, and the project will be fully put into operation next year.

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.

Yunnan Provincial Development and Reform Commission announced on September 11 that the average monthly output of local industrial silicon companies should not exceed 10% of the August output from September to December.

COVID-19 pandemic once again swept the world recently. The new cases surged in US, Europe, and south-east Asia due to the spread of Delta variant. Pandemic was also spreading in China. On August 1, 31 province (including autonomous regions and municipalities) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps reported 98 new confirmed cases, including 43 imported cases and 55 local cases.