BYD's share rose 1.83 percentage points in April from March, while CATL's fell 2.94 percentage points. China's overall power battery installations totaled 54.1 GWh in April, up 52.8 percent year-on-year but down 4.3 percent from March.

After a brief rebound, the futures price of lithium carbonate resumed its downward trend. On May 16, the most-traded LC2407 lithium carbonate futures contract fell by 4.19%, closing at 61,800 yuan/mt, hitting a new low since its listing. In response, Yang Fei, a senior researcher of the Nonferrous Metals and New Materials Team at CITIC Futures, said in an interview with the Futures Daily reporter that the weak performance of lithium carbonate futures prices was due to a supply-demand imbalance. The current lithium carbonate market is in a phase where demand has yet to recover and social inventory needs to be reduced.

On May 16, Gasgoo learned that the latest data showed that the average price of domestically produced battery-grade lithium carbonate had dropped to 65,050 yuan/mt. This price represents a significant decline compared to the beginning of this year. Since the start of this year, the market quotes for battery-grade lithium carbonate have fallen by over 10,000 yuan. The current price has fallen below the break-even point for most lithium carbonate producers, and the entire lithium carbonate industry is facing severe challenges.