[SMM monthly Outlook] the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has soared 75%. Will it rise after the Spring Festival?! Leading enterprises actively expand production

SMM1 March 29: since hitting a low in mid-August 2020, the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has rebounded in retaliation. As of January 29, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate was 70500 yuan / ton, up 75% from August 19, 2020, and 33% in January 2021 alone.

"Click to view the spot historical price of SMM cobalt lithium

According to SMM research, prices have continued to rise recently, mainly because large lithium salt factories in Jiangxi and Sichuan have stopped production, lithium salt factories mostly stop quotation, but shipments continue. According to SMM research, although some enterprises lock the volume ahead of time, but the price follows the market, so the shipping price continues to rise. On the contrary, demand-side material factory inquiry increased, reason 1: due to the influence of some market trading sentiment and capital bullish sentiment, downstream price forecast showed an upward trend, and market inquiry continued to increase; reason 2: most enterprises basically completed Spring Festival stock preparation, but due to the raw material side continued to release production reduction and tightening information, worried about the supply of raw materials from March to May, and wanted to lock up ahead of time.

Looking forward to February, according to SMM statistics, from January to February 2021, domestic lithium carbonate production enterprises have more maintenance, reducing output by about 2000 tons per month, and the impact of lithium hydroxide is relatively small, mainly due to the obvious increase in overseas demand, so it is necessary to ensure its raw material supply. However, the Spring Festival production of domestic downstream material factories has little impact, on the contrary, some expansion projects have been gradually put into production, and the demand for lithium salt has increased significantly. With the Spring Festival approaching, the material factory has basically completed its stock preparation for the Spring Festival, and it is expected that the price fluctuation before the Spring Festival will be small, but the material factory will inquire about the increment of raw materials after the year, and it is expected that the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate will still rise after the Spring Festival.

Under the background of the rising price of lithium carbonate, the leading enterprises in the lithium carbonate industry are also actively expanding production and grabbing market share.

China Mineral Resources: at present, the company's LiF production capacity is 3000 tons / year, lithium carbonate production capacity is 6000 tons / year, and is actively building a new production line with an annual production capacity of 15000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide and 10, 000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate. The company's lithium salt business has a good market reputation, and the main customer of battery-grade LiF is Morita Chemical of Japan, thus entering Tesla's global supply chain system.

Tianqi lithium industry: at present, the company's lithium carbonate production capacity is 34500 tons / year, lithium hydroxide production capacity is 5000 tons / year. In addition, the company also has 48000 tons of lithium hydroxide and 20, 000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate under construction, of which the first phase of Quinana's 24000-ton lithium hydroxide project is scheduled to reach its design capacity in the fourth quarter of 2022.

* ST Salt Lake: each shareholder of the subsidiary intends to increase its capital in the same proportion by a total of 620 million yuan. Among them, * ST Salt Lake plans to increase the capital of Lanke Lithium Industry by 319 million yuan according to the equity ratio of 51.42%; two subsidiaries of Koda Manufacturing, Koda Lithium Industry and Qinghai Power, plan to increase the capital of Lanke Lithium Industry by 48.58%. In total, the capital of Lanke Lithium Industry will be increased by 301 million yuan. The announcement shows that the price of this capital increase is 3.55 yuan per share, of which 175 million yuan is included in the registered capital and 445 million yuan in the capital reserve. After the completion of the capital increase, the share capital of Lanke Lithium Industry will be changed from 343 million shares to 518 million shares, and the registered capital will increase from 433 million yuan to 518 million yuan. This time, the main business of Lanke Lithium Industry is the production and sales of lithium carbonate. It currently has a production capacity of 10,000 tons of industrial-grade lithium carbonate and is implementing an expansion project of 20,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate per year.

SQM: 's board of directors has approved the start of a process to increase the company's capital, up to $1.1 billion. According to the company's statement, the capital increase plan proposed by the board is to partially fund the US $1.9 billion investment plan for 2021-2024 to expand the production of lithium, iodine and nitrate, mainly in northern Chile. and the Dutch Mountain Lithium hydroxide project in western Australia. The goal is to more than double the annual capacity of Chilean lithium carbonate from 70, 000 tonnes to 180000 tonnes.