Pre-Holiday Purchasing of Lithium Carbonate Active, Chemicals Transportation Restricted during National Day Holiday

SHANGHAI, Sep 29 (SMM) - A number of provinces and regions including Jiangsu, Shandong, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Sichuan have all released the notices that vehicles carrying hazardous chemicals and alike are with restricted access to highways during the National Day holiday. For example, the Public Security Traffic Management Department of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau announced on its website that in order to ensure the safety of highway traffic during the National Day in 2022, and in accordance with the Road Traffic Safety Law of the People's Republic of China and the Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals, the Public Security Traffic Management Department, Tianjin Public Security Traffic Administration, and Hebei Public Security Department Traffic Administration have decided to impose restrictions on vehicles from transporting dangerous goods from 0:00 on October 1 to 24:00 on October 7, 2022. The details are as follows:

1. Vehicles carrying dangerous goods (including those holding the "Road Transport Permit for Dangerous Chemicals" and "Road Transport Permit for Highly Toxic Chemicals") are prohibited from running on highways within the administrative region of Beijing.

2. Vehicles carrying dangerous goods (including those holding permits to carry such goods) are prohibited from running on highways within the administrative region of Tianjin.

3. Vehicles carrying dangerous goods (including those with "Road Transport Permit for Highly Toxic Chemicals") are prohibited from running on highways within the administrative region of Hebei Province.

For some lithium salt manufacturers, lithium hydroxide, LiOH, LiF, etc. are categorised as hazardous chemicals, and transportation during the National Day is subject to different restrictions. As upstream smelters shall maintain consistent production, the operating rates will be relatively unchanged. At present, the National Day holiday is approaching, some downstream enterprises are quite active in restocking in light of low lithium salt inventory. In addition, many downstream material and battery manufacturers have a busy production schedule for next month, and they usually procure intensively around the end of the month. Hence market transactions have been quite active recently, fuelling lithium carbonate prices. However, the top-tier downstream manufacturers have higher bargaining power in the spot market, and there is still certain room for gaming.

In the medium and long term, the LFP and ternary cathode material markets have maintained high prosperity, with the smooth commissioning of production expansion plans. However, with the tight supply of lithium salt, the demand growth has been less than expected. It is expected that the lithium carbonate market will remain in supply deficit in the upcoming fourth quarter.