Lithium Carbonate Prices Lost Another 3,500 yuan/mt in a Single Day, and Lithium Hexafluorophosphate Prices Plummeted 240,000 yuan/mt in the Past Month

SHANGHAI, Apr 27 (SMM) - The SMM spot prices of domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate fell further to 450,000-473,000 yuan/mt yesterday, a drop of 3,500 yuan/mt from the previous day.

Domestic battery-grade lithium hydroxide prices went down along with lithium carbonate, falling to 462,000-476,000 yuan/mt yesterday, a drop of 1,000 yuan/mt in a single day. After falling by 15,750 yuan/mt in the previous day, lithium metal prices fell by 15,000 yuan/mt again yesterday, and its average spot price fell to 3.13 million yuan/mt, down 30,750 yuan/mt from the previous high, a drop of 0.97%.

Due to continuous increase in supply recently, lithium hexafluorophosphate prices lost 12,500 yuan/mt in a single day to 352,500 yuan/mt yesterday, a drop of 41.15% from the high on March 9.

China has been vigorously promoting the development of lithium ore resources, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has repeatedly encouraged the acceleration in the development of lithium resources. According to the public information released by the Ministry of Natural Resources on April 19, the two major domestic lithium ore resource development projects have passed the review, which are located in Qinghai Province and Sichuan Province.

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has repeatedly called for efforts to ensure the stable supply and price in the lithium salt market. Supply is on the rise due to increasing output at smelters and arrivals of imported lithium carbonate, while demand declined. As such, lithium carbonate prices will maintain downward trend.

However, on April 1, the Australian lithium miner Allkem announced a significant increase in the guidance  price of lithium concentrate. It is expected that the average selling price of lithium concentrate in the second quarter of 2022 will be as high as $5,000/mt, a significant increase of about 125% from Q1.

The SMM spot prices of spodumene concentrate (6%, CIF China) continued to rise, rising by $50/mt to $3,555/mt yesterday.