Good News & Bad News, page-6720

• Tight supply supported seaborne lithium prices further on Jan. 4, when suppliers were consistently raising their offers.
  
  Offers were heard going above $40,000/mt for lithium carbonate and $37,000-$38,000/mt for lithium hydroxide, both on a CIF North Asia basis, but no concluded transactions were reported at these levels.
  Lithium carbonate was assessed at $34,100/mt and lithium hydroxide at $32,000/mt, both up $300/mt from Jan. 3.
  The prices reflect the spot value of battery-grade material on a CIF North Asia basis, referring to deliveries to the main ports of China, Japan and South Korea. Lithium carbonate, however, is normalized to deliveries at the Shanghai port.
  In addition to tight supply, the huge differential between seaborne prices and Chinese domestic prices could be another reason for the surging offers.
  Platts' $34,100/mt assessment for battery-grade lithium carbonate CIF North Asia was equivalent to Yuan 246,027/mt on a DDP China basis, including a 13% value-added tax, based on Platts’ import-parity calculation.
  The DDP China lithium carbonate price was assessed at Yuan 285,000/mt on Jan. 4, meaning seaborne prices were well below the Chinese import parity — the difference is equivalent to over $6,000/mt. The dollar was assessed at Yuan 6.3794 at 4:30 pm Singapore time.
  Prices have been rallying significantly in the past few weeks both in the Chinese and international markets. Some sources said buyers were restocking ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday in early February, which was driving the whole market higher.
  “I wonder if battery makers can accept prices to continue going up,” a trader source said, who heard about offers going above $40,000/mt for carbonate and to $37,000-$38,000/mt for hydroxide. “I haven't really followed the lithium market this week but feels like prices have been increasing like mad,” he added.
  Another trader source who heard about an offer for hydroxide at $38,000/mt said, “Hydroxide prices are starting to go up in line with lithium carbonate.” He also heard about carbonate offers above $40,000/mt CIF North Asia.