Prem5 Aug 2021 00:42
My post from 01/08:
“Prices for lithium chemicals will still have room to rise by the end of the year, demand for EV batteries and energy storage is still strong,” said Xiaoyi Liu, an analyst at Shanghai Metals Market.
According to Morgan Stanley, high spot prices in China reflect tight supply, strong demand, and low inventory. Smaller converters are already running out of raw materials and higher prices are likely to lead to gradual mining restarts in Australia in the second half, the bank said in a note.
Still, there are risks of a repeat of the sector’s 2018 tumble, according to Wang. Prices could pull-back if miners fire up supply projects too quickly, or if the pace of EV sales slips, he said in the Monday interview.
While the lithium market will remain tight for the next two years, beyond that “lithium producers will need to manage supply growth in a sustainable manner to avoid another crash in prices as occurred in 2018,” BNEF analysts Kwasi Ampofo and Peng Xu said in a note this month.
Acker