Today, lithium carbonate jumped 8000 yuan again, the average price of electrolytic cobalt exceeded 510000 [SMM News]

SMM Feb. 11: today, battery-grade lithium carbonate rose for the fourth trading day in a row. Its spot price rose to 38.8-396000 yuan / ton, with an average price of 392000 yuan / ton, jumping 8000 yuan a day, or 2.08 percent.

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

The price of battery-grade lithium hydroxide has also risen frequently over the past few days, and now its spot price has risen to 32.2-331000 yuan / ton, with an average price of 326500 yuan / ton, compared with lithium Synchronize, up 8000 yuan, or 2.51%. In terms of lithium metal, the average price of lithium metal rose 30, 000 yuan today to 2.03 million yuan / ton.

On the news side, in terms of lithium, Chile's Constituent Assembly recently passed a preliminary proposal aimed at promoting the nationalization of copper, lithium and other strategic assets. For a time, there has been a lot of discussion about the supply and demand pattern of lithium resources in China. According to SMM estimates, China's lithium carbonate market will be difficult to balance in the next five years. China's lithium carbonate supply is limited by overseas resource capacity from 2021 to 2022, and there will be a supply shortfall of about 7 per cent in 2022, with annual average prices rising sharply. With the gradual strengthening of overseas resource control, China's resource supply will also face risks and challenges in the future. "View details

Compared with the frequently rising prices of lithium-related products, the price of cobalt industry chain products should be stable. However, today, the price of electrolytic cobalt also opened a new round of rise, the average spot price rose 12500 yuan a day, the average price was 514000 yuan / ton. The price of cobalt compounds rose Synchronize, the average spot price of domestic cobalt sulfate rose 500 yuan to 110500 yuan / ton, and the spot price of cobalt chloride rose 500 yuan to 129500 yuan / ton.

In terms of electrolytic cobalt, according to SMM research, the price of electrolytic cobalt has gone up this week. Driven by the current cobalt salt profits at the supply end, it seems to be a common phenomenon to adjust the production allocation of electric cobalt production, and the current spot inventory of traders is low. From the demand side, alloy and magnetic materials began to be purchased after the end of the year, and downstream manufacturers have inquired about orders or purchases for future supply and price forecasts in the near future. Superimposed head factory Jinchuan ex-factory price up to 52 has an impact on market sentiment, leading to the recent rise in the price of cobalt. "View details

With regard to lithium carbonate, in February, the domestic supply side was still affected by the maintenance of lithium salt enterprises, which decreased by about 7% in February. Under such circumstances, even if the demand side was affected by the Spring Festival production reduction and raw material shortage, there was a substantial reduction in domestic production of lithium iron phosphate plate, and the production of ternary and lithium cobalt was also reduced. As a result, the demand for lithium carbonate decreased by 16% in February, but the market gap remained, only reduced from the original 28% to about 15%. As a result, post-holiday prices are still in an upward state. "View details

Huaan Securities said that it is difficult to ease the contradiction between supply and demand in the lithium industry due to the miscarriage of the largest lithium mining project in Europe and the brewing of the lithium organization in South America. Specifically, the Serbian government suspended Rio Tinto's Jadar lithium project for political and environmental reasons, showing the difficulty and long period of lithium resource development; the three major lithium resource countries in South America are discussing the establishment of an organization of lithium producing countries, which is expected to optimize the lithium supply pattern and further co-ordinate and regulate the industry, which is conducive to maintaining high lithium prices. However, the medium-and short-term lithium supply increment is limited, the contradiction between supply and demand strongly supports the high lithium price, and lithium salt supply may become the decisive factor of capacity release in the middle and lower reaches.

Guoxin Securities believes that in terms of lithium, the current supply and demand of lithium mines and lithium salt is still in the most tense moment, the tight situation of global supply and demand of lithium mines is difficult to ease in the short term, and lithium prices are expected to remain high. As for cobalt, the recent epidemic in South Africa repeatedly led to delays in the delivery of raw materials, and the shipping date was generally extended by 2-2.5 months; the quantity of cobalt raw materials arriving in Hong Kong in November was lower than expected, exceeding expectations in December, and the shortage of domestic cobalt raw materials supply eased somewhat, but still maintained a tight situation. The global cobalt supply chain is relatively fragile. Under the tight balance between supply and demand, the instability of supply is easy to affect the price of cobalt.

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