Tianqi Lithium Industry: the company has an annual production capacity of about 44800 tons of lithium chemical products and the first phase of the Australian project is progressing smoothly.

SMM November 19: recently, lithium salt plate repeatedly lifted the best part, to Mount Qomolangma in Tibet, Tianqi lithium industry and other companies led by the recent stock price performance are envious of others. In this context, many investors are very curious about the progress of the company's lithium ore and lithium salt business.

On November 18, Tianqi Lithium Industry responded to investors' questions on the interactive platform. In response to questions about the company's current lithium salt production capacity, Tianqi Lithium Industry replied that the company currently has a total capacity of about 44800 tons / year of lithium chemical products, including 34500 tons / year of lithium carbonate capacity and 5000 tons / year of lithium hydroxide production capacity.

Not only that, the company also has 48000 tons of lithium hydroxide and 20, 000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate under construction. The planned production capacity of lithium chemical products in the medium term is more than 110000 tons / year, which mainly includes lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, metal lithium and so on, but does not include lithium hexafluorophosphate whose price has skyrocketed since the beginning of this year.

However, although lithium hexafluorophosphate is not included in Tianqi Lithium Industry's medium-term lithium product plan, it is enough to make Tianqi lithium industry a lot of money with battery-grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide. According to the historical price of SMM, the price of domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate has risen rapidly under the explosive demand for new energy vehicles this year. As of November 18, the average spot price of domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate had reached 198500 yuan / ton, up 145500 yuan / ton or 274.5% from the beginning of the year.

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This is far from over. According to SMM research, the lithium carbonate market may have a supply gap of about 16% from November to December, and traders may release goods or ease the supply pressure, but the fundamentals are firm, and lithium carbonate prices are expected to continue to rise in the future. "View details

In addition, during the round table forum session of the new energy special session of the 2021 non-ferrous metals annual meeting held by SMM, Huang Shanyan, general manager of the production and research center of Ningbo Rongbaixin Energy Technology Co., Ltd., also said that the price of lithium salt is expected to remain high in the first half of 2022. Subsequently, with the restart of lithium mines in Australia and the entering of summer in South America, the speed of lithium drying in salt lakes will increase, overseas lithium salt may enter China in the second half of next year. It is a supplement to domestic lithium salt, so as to ease the rising trend of lithium salt. "View details

Driven by the high price of lithium salt, Tianqi lithium industry made a total net profit of 530 million yuan in the first three quarters of 2021, up 148.02% from the same period last year. In this era of "ore is king", as one of the few enterprises in the world that simultaneously distribute high-quality lithium mines and salt lake brine resources, some investors asked about the specific progress of the company's Nana lithium salt project. In response, Tianqi Lithium Industry replied that the commissioning of the first phase of the company's Quinana, Australia, "24000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate project" is progressing smoothly according to the previous plan. At present, the joint working group is actively working to achieve the stable operation of the whole process and the optimization of process control parameters, and strive to achieve the phased goal of achieving the state of marketable products and the factory entering formal operation and trial production by the end of 2021.

According to the problems in the process of trial production, the company will carry out targeted rectification work in time to make the project gradually achieve a sustained and stable production state, with a view to achieving the ultimate goal of reaching an annual design capacity of 24000 tons by the end of 2022.

It is worth mentioning that in the 2021 semi-annual report, Tianqi Lithium Industry mentioned that the company has two phases in Quinana, Australia, with a total annual production capacity of 48000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide production line under construction and commissioning. At present, the first phase of the project is progressing steadily, and the second phase is on hold.

Compared with the rapidly rising battery-grade lithium carbonate, battery-grade lithium hydroxide performed as well. As of November 18, the average price of battery-grade lithium hydroxide was 188000 yuan / ton, up 138500 yuan / ton from the beginning of the year, or 279.8%.

"Click to view the spot price of SMM new energy products