Can you go all over the world with "lithium"?

All along, non-ferrous metals have attracted much attention because of their global and important strategic resources. Recently, while the "LME nickel futures" incident has gradually subsided, the sharp rise in lithium prices has also aroused concern.

In recent years, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles and energy storage industry, the price of non-ferrous metals with nickel, cobalt, lithium and other new energy materials continues to rise.

According to relevant public data, the price of lithium carbonate was about 75400 yuan / ton in the fourth quarter of 2015; at the beginning of 2016, the average price reached 133500 yuan / ton-174500 yuan / ton; and in the first quarter of 2018, the highest price was close to 200000 yuan / ton. After the second half of 2018, the price returned to about 100000 yuan / ton. In the past two years, with the rapid development of new energy battery industry, especially after the goal of "double carbon" was put forward, lithium battery is more suitable for the development of new energy vehicle market. In this context, lithium is favored by the market again. The price of lithium products is rising rapidly, all the way up. According to relevant public data, the price of battery-grade lithium reached 500000 yuan per ton on March 10, reaching an all-time high, nearly double that of late December 2021. For a time, there is a development trend of "lithium" all over the world.

From the perspective of lithium demand, at present, China has become a veritable big consumer of lithium. Some analysts predict that the lithium industry is expected to usher in a business cycle of more than 3 years.

In the face of no intention to reduce the fever for the time being, the high price of lithium. On February 28, at a press conference held by the State News Office, Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out that it is necessary to focus on meeting the production needs of power batteries and other production needs, and appropriately speed up the development of domestic lithium resources. crack down on unfair competition such as hoarding and driving up prices. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a symposium on the operation of the lithium industry and the price increase of upstream materials for power batteries, and also stressed that in view of the recent sharp rise in the prices of lithium resources and lithium salt products, enterprises in the upper and lower reaches of the industrial chain are required to strengthen the docking of supply and demand, work together to form a long-term and stable strategic cooperation relationship, jointly guide the rational return of lithium salt prices, and strengthen efforts to ensure market supply.

It can be seen that rational thinking must be maintained in order to speed up the development of lithium resources and promote the healthy development of new energy industry.

First, with the continuous expansion of the development of resources, the situation that supply falls short of demand will certainly be alleviated. China's lithium resources are mainly concentrated in Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet, Sichuan, Jiangxi and other places. Since the 21st century, great-leap-forward development has been made in mining and separation, extraction of lithium from ores, production and application. In recent years, a number of non-ferrous enterprises, such as China Mineral Resources, Ningde era, Ganfeng Lithium Industry, Tianqi Lithium Industry, Huayou Cobalt Industry, Shengxin Lithium Energy and so on, have implemented the "going out" strategy and made important achievements in the development of lithium resources. Especially in the past two years, more and more enterprises have joined the ranks of development. For example, Zijin Mining has completed the delivery of a 100% equity merger and acquisition of Xinli Company of Canada. For this reason, while the demand for new energy batteries is increasing, the development capacity of lithium resources is also increasing.

Second, the breakthrough and application of lithium extraction technology will bring about a rapid increase in production capacity. In the past, there were technical bottlenecks in the extraction of lithium from salt lakes and ores in China, which affected the large-scale development and application. In recent years, China has made continuous breakthroughs in lithium extraction technology. In 2021, enterprises represented by China Minmetals made important breakthroughs in the technology of extracting lithium from salt lakes. Its "Research on High efficiency Lithium extraction Technology from Salt Lake bittern" omits the salt field drying process with long separation and concentration time and low yield, shortens the original 2-year lithium extraction production cycle to 20 days, and the total lithium extraction yield is increased to twice as much as the original. Moreover, its product quality has been further improved and batch consistency has been improved, which can fully meet the standards for the production of high-end materials for new energy lithium batteries. At the same time, the lithium extraction technology of lithium mica continues to solve the constraints of high energy consumption and large pollution, which promotes the development of lithium extraction technology.

Third, the price deviation is not conducive to the healthy development of the whole lithium industry. It can be said that any industry whose upstream basic material supply price is too high and deviates from the market will affect the healthy operation of the whole industry. At present, in the development and application of technology, China's lithium industry as a whole is still in the middle and low end of the division of labor in the international industrial chain, and the technological innovation capability of the high-end link still needs to be improved. It can be said that there is still a long way to go to speed up the high-quality development of the industry. If the price of upstream products is too high, it will affect the development and application of products in the middle and lower reaches. At the same time, through the price transmission, the harm to the final consumers is formed. Moreover, the price deviation will make the middle and downstream industries have to seek more reasonable prices and new basic materials to replace. This will affect the development of the whole industry.

For industrial development, heat is a good thing. This proves that there is a market and demand, and the industry has more room for development. However, in order to maintain the heat of development, it is necessary to promote the stable and coordinated development of the whole industry chain in order to better support the healthy development of new energy vehicles and other strategic emerging industries in China.