LONDON, Oct 22 (Reuters) - The London Metal Exchange (LME)
has decided on hydroxide for its proposed lithium contract due
to launch in the first half of next year, expanding its suite of
materials relevant for automakers, including copper, cobalt and
aluminium.
Rechargeable batteries used to power electric vehicles can
use lithium carbonate or hydroxide. Lithium hydroxide is often
preferred over carbonate because it allows greater battery
capacity and longer life.
"Lithium underpins the development of the growing electric
vehicle market," said LME Product Development Manager Antonio
Masiero at an LME event on Thursday. "Most market participants
will be able to hedge using the hydroxide contract."
Masiero said that the correlation between weekly lithium
carbonate and hydroxide was very high - above 90% - and that the
exchange might also look at other electric vehicle materials
such as nickel sulphate, graphite and manganese.
Last year the LME chose price-reporting agency Fastmarkets
to provide a reference https://fr.reuters.com/article/us-lme-lithium-fastmarkets-idUSKCN1TB272
price for its planned lithium contract.
(Reporting by Pratima Desai
Editing by David Goodman)