A weekly update on the trending stories from the New Energy sector. 

SMM lithium team visited lithium salts plants in Jiangxi from March 2 to investigate their new projects and projects under construction. As an important area for lithium smelting, Jiangxi currently has 7 smelters with a capacity of more than 10,000 mt, 4 of which use lepidolite concentrate as a main raw material. 

Tianqi Lithium's share prices had surged from April 2020 amid development of new energy vehicles (NEVs), but dropped rapidly after the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday. 

China’s lithium carbonate imports are expected to reach 19,407 mt in Q4 2020, an increase of 94.3% quarter-on-quarter and 142% year-on-year. Imports were mostly from Chile.

Prices of battery-grade lithium carbonate have been climbing steadily recently.

On November 2, the highly-anticipated Development Plan for the New Energy Vehicle Industry (2021-2035) was unveiled, which was not only a good news for the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry, but also a boost to cobalt demand.

Cobalt stockpiling will continue, supporting cobalt prices. Inventories of cobalt raw materials will not be high in the near term with the restocking demand ahead of the National Day holidays.

Prices of cobalt are expected to further retreat this week as the arrival of cheap cobalt raw materials impacts the domestic spot market and grow cobalt salt producers inclination to destock. 

Yunnan Tin Group, China’s largest tin producer, said late Tuesday that it would suspend production for maintenance at its smelter from June 24.

According to statistics from the United States Geological Survey in 2015, the world's proven land cobalt resources were about 25 million mt, with reserves of 7.2 million mt. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Australia and Cuba accounted for 68% of the global cobalt reserves. Congo (Gold) is the country with the most abundant cobalt reserves. As of 2014, cobalt reserves in Congo stood at 3.4 million mt, accounting for more than 50% of the world’s total.