During November 17-20, SMM new energy business director Wang Tian and marketing consultant Yu Lei led SMM staff and members of the delegation to visit lithium battery raw material producers in Hunan in order to seek more in-depth cooperation opportunities. Their first stop was Hunan Kingfuli New Energy Co., Ltd.

China's installed capacity of cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries to power electric vehicles jumped 74.1% to 0.9GWh in April from a month ago, showed data from the China Automobile Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance (CAPBIIA).

East China's Jiangsu province will accelerate its investment in new infrastructure projects in 2020, a move aimed at expanding information consumption and supporting the development of 5G networks, local authorities said in a press conference on April 15. 

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. 

China's installed capacity of batteries to power electric vehicles surged 363.2% in March from the month before to 2.86GWh, showed data from the China Automobile Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance (CAPBIIA), suggesting the country’s EV sector is recovering from the coronavirus pandemic outbreak.

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..

Eighteen provinces in China including Shandong and Anhui have rolled out plans to construct a total of more than 413,000 5G base stations this year, as China speeds up the investment in new infrastructure to bolster consumption amid the impact of coronavirus outbreak.

This is in response to the central government’s call to build "new infrastructure" projects to counter the economic fallout due to the coronavirus and boost the country's economy in the long term. New infrastructure, different from traditional infrastructure construction such as railways, roads, and airports, can be understood as new public facilities serving the needs of new industrialisation. 

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.