Dominant Cost Competitiveness Keeps Salt Lake-Based Lithium Carbonate Smelters More Immune from Price Collapse Than Rivals

Even after lithium carbonate prices have lost two thirds from last year's peak, a large number of smelters remain in profit-making territory as the current market prices are still well above their production costs.

At present, the full costs of lithium carbonate produced from salt lake are less than 40,000 yuan/mt, compared to around 50,000 yuan/mt for spodumene-based process and roughly 70,000 yuan/mt for lepidolite-based process.