[SMM Annual Summit] Battery Market Is Likely to See Long-Term Raw Material Shortage in 2022-2024, What Are the Causes?

SHANGHAI, Nov 17 (SMM) - The new production capacity of lithium resources will be put into operation intensively after 2022-2023, and the production may be lower than expected. It is expected that there will still be a supply shortage of 24,000 mt LCE in 2022.

The upstream chemical industries such as VC and phosphoric acid is under great pressure of environmental impact assessment, and the review period of new projects is long. The supply is expected to remain tight.

The separator supply is expected to be short in 2022 due to the limited equipment capacity, while the capacity of lithium hexafluorophosphate will be put into production intensively in 2022 as the technical threshold is high and most capacities belongs to the leading enterprises.

The dual control of energy consumption has been implemented across the country in H2 2021. The enterprises with high energy consumption and pollution have suspended production, and the production of lithium battery materials has been restricted.

China is highly dependent on the overseas lithium and cobalt raw materials. The raw material supply will be more unstable in the future due to COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitics.

The limited resources, environmental protection restrictions, technical bottleneck, power rationing, and geographic politics will cause the shortage of battery raw materials.