[SMM News] the new national standard of battery-grade lithium hydroxide is about to come out of the salt lake and become a new player.

SMM6, June 19: on June 18, 2019, organized by the National Nonferrous Metals Standardization Technical Committee, a working conference on "battery grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate" and other five non-ferrous metal standards was held in Yichun, Jiangxi Province, in which the compilation of the national standard of "battery grade lithium hydroxide" was discussed and drawn up.

According to communication with industry insiders, we have recently learned that the core changes in the formulation of the new national standard for battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate are reflected in the following points:

1. In terms of scope of application, the new national standard is applicable to "battery grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate produced by various methods", while the old national standard is applicable to "battery grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate suitable for the production of secondary batteries";

2. In terms of product classification, the new national standard has added the classification of "crystal type and powder type";

3. In the inspection items, the new national standard has added the detection standard of "B (boron) and magnetic foreign body".

We believe that the adjustment of the new national standard can see two major trends in the market:

1. The application of lithium hydroxide is required to be more detailed and standardized. The development of the market leads to the rigor of the standard, which also means that in the medium to long term, the demand for lithium hydroxide in the industry will show a broader and substantial growth. Although the current process of high nickel is slow, it is undeniable that this is still the trend of the times.

2. Lithium hydroxide, which uses salt lake as raw material, gradually enters the secondary lithium electricity application market. From the point of view of technology, there are no boron impurities in lithium hydroxide extracted from spodumene, and there is no need to set the detection standard. However, the latest national standard for the detection of this element is proposed, reflecting the market for salt lake as the raw material of battery-grade lithium hydroxide products. Of course, whether the consistency of the product quality of this kind of battery-grade lithium hydroxide can be widely recognized in the future, the industry still holds the observation attitude. But in any case, this is also a new signal, worthy of our attention to follow.

Understand that the current national standard is still in the process of revision, has not yet confirmed the final version, we will continue to follow up, continue to pay attention to.

SMM Cobalt Lithium Research team

Hu Yan 021 51666809

Hong Lu 021 51666814

Ning Ziwei 021 51666780

Qin Jingjing 021 51666828