Running discussion on SP, page-3287

Interesting thought for the night from the GXY quarterly.

'As the industry continues to mature we are beginning to see the emergence of seasonal trends in both demand for lithium on battery products, such as electric vehicles, as well as in lithium pricing.  As in Q1 of 2017, the market witnessed a small retraction in lithium prices through Q1 of 2018 (c.-10% for lithium carbonate, c.-3% for lithium hydroxide in China).  Despite this, however, prices remain significantly elevated on a year-on-year (“YoY”) basis (c.+21% for lithium carbonate, c.+5% for lithium hydroxide in China), indicating that the market for lithium chemicals remains incredibly tight and will continue to support a strong pricing environment.'

This is interesting.  Seasonal pricing due to season demand.  This isn't as crazy as it sounds when one looks at the global EV sales chart over a year.



As a general rule, EV sales tend to increase over the year towards December.  It might turn out that post December, the lithium market suffers (as we witness with the retrace starting in mid Jan) and then things improve as the year progresses.  If correct, price contraction would eventually improve along with sentiment.

Just on a side note, those March sales gains are beautiful this year!