Latest Update in the China Cobalt Market

Nearly half of the global lithium carbonate resources have been used in NEVs in 2020. The global demand for lithium carbonate is expected to increase to 610,000 mt LCE by 2025, with a five-year compound growth rate of 14%, mainly driven by NEVs, with market demand for NEVs accounting for nearly 60%;

In response to the recent hot events in the real estate industry, many Chinese regulatory agencies have recently intensively spoken out on different occasions.

Ganfeng Lithium announced that it intends to acquire 8.58% of its shares at Litio from International Lithium Corp. through Ganfeng Lithium Netherlands CO.,B.V. Upon completing this transaction, Ganfeng Lithium indirectly holds 100% equity of Litio and its Mariana lithium salt lake project.

The raw material prices, such as lithium carbonate, lithium hexafluorophosphate, solvents, and PVDF, have increased further since Q3. Prices of battery-grade and industrial-grade lithium carbonate rose 49% and 52% respectively MoM in September. LFP prices increased 23%, ternary cathode material prices gained 12% and electrolyte rose 15-18%. Ternary cathode material battery cell costs increased 8.3% in September and LFP battery cell rose 7.2% on the back of rising battery material prices. 

In 2018, with the concentrated release of lithium concentrate production capacity in Western Australia, China’s smelting companies such as Sichuan Zhiyuan Lithium doubled their lithium carbonate production capacity since July of the same year. Therefore, domestic smelting companies imported more lithium concentrates, while the imported lithium carbonates decreased, which dropped from 30,700 mt in 2017 to 24,500 mt in 2018.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will do its best to ensure the stability of the supply and prices of bulk commodities, Jiang Yi, deputy director of the NDRC’s System Reform Department, stated at the NDRC press conference held on October 21.

Ganfeng Lithium (002460) announced that it intends to acquire 8.58% equity interest in Litio from International Lithium Corp. ("International Lithium") to through its wholly-owned subsidy Ganfeng Lithium Netherlands CO., B.V. (“Ganfeng Lithium Netherlands”).

In September, the installed capacity of ternary cathode battery recorded 6.14GWh, while 9.54Wh of LFP batteries were installed, giving LFP batteries the lead over ternary batteries for the third consecutive time in terms of installation capacity.