Lithium & The Future, page-3649

Hi Rupfel ,
I liked this one:
London Metal Exchange and Fastmarkets to set lithium price ...
MINING.com - 10 Jun 2019

“UNLIKE FOR COPPER OR OTHER METALS USED IN THE MAKING OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES, THERE IS NO TRADED PRICE FOR LITHIUM.
“The London Metal Exchange (LME) is partnering with Fastmarketsto develop the reference price for its planned lithium futures contract...
Currently, producers negotiate contracts with buyers, but the terms of the deals are not made public”......
...”Will help analysts and executives to get a full sense of the global market” ........

....The move....comes after industry players, including producers, end-users and several leading automotive firms, urged the LME to develop effective lithium price-risk management tools.
“This global strategic partnership will develop a definitive roadmap aimed at providing a pricing mechanism for lithium that can be utilized throughout the supply chain and will support the development of risk-management tools for the industry,” Fastmarkets said in a separate statement.



Here’s bits from the separate statement:

“LONDON, June 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Fastmarkets - a leading source of pricing information for the global commodity markets - announces that it has been selected by the London Metal Exchange (LME) as its partner to develop the lithium price benchmark.

This global strategic partnership will develop a definitive roadmap aimed at providing a pricing mechanism for lithium that can be utilized throughout the supply chain and will support the development of risk-management tools for the industry......
......
...It is the first price reporting agency to have achieved Type 1 IOSCO assurance for its lithium prices.
"The LME, on the basis of market views, selected Fastmarkets as its pricing partner due to their lithium prices being widely used across the industry combined with their leading pricing capabilities," the London Metal Exchange said.

"We are excited to now work with the LME as partners to further develop our prices to provide essential risk-management tools for this market," Daswani added.
Fastmarkets already provides the global benchmark for the cobalt market - another important battery raw material.”



At the conference it seems to have been much discussed judging by the other stories:
Lithium producers skeptical about benchmark price proposal
BNamericas English - 12 Jun 2019
This (useful) report says the idea was put to LME last year by the Chilean Government ;
“On a visit to the UK last October, Chile’s mining minister Baldo Prokurica asked the London Metals Exchange to consider trading lithium to provide more clarity about its real value.
We want to generate conditions for our products to be sold in a transparent manner, and that raises the possibility that lithium be traded on the LME so there can be clarity about its value,” said Prokurica at the time


The need is even more relevant now, according to William Adams, Fastmarkets head of base metals and battery research, .. “the lithium market is growing very rapidly and will hit 1Mt lithium carbonate equivalent by 2025, as demand increases for EVs.
“In that sort of environment and in order for the industry to grow that fast, it’s going to need a very liquid price so the intermediary cathode producers don’t have the hassle of negotiating prices all the time.”

But some of the big players - specifically SQM and Albemarle - are not happy as they feel benchmark prices could do more harm than good
“unlike copper, lithium is not a commodity but rather a specialty chemical with its own product specifications for each customer.”
SQM is not convinced, and Albemarle says flatly that it won’t be involved.


I am not sure where Altura fits into this.
While it is of global interest, seeing as LME hasn’t set a time to implement any price regulation, it is unlikely to be directly relevant as deals with expansion-minded, well funded off take partners will hopefully be signed in the very near future ..

Maybe next week ?