China doesn't produce enough Li domestically so they buy a lot...

China doesn't produce enough Li domestically so they buy a lot of Li from around the world to build their batteries for cars and storage.

Here's a recent 2024 list I found of the top Li producing countries.

Australia. Mine production: 86,000 MT. ...
Chile. Mine production: 44,000 MT. ...
China. Mine production: 33,000 MT. ...
Argentina. Mine production: 9,600 MT. ...
Brazil. Mine production: 4,900 MT. ...
Zimbabwe. Mine production: 3,400 MT. ...
Canada. Mine production: 3,400 MT. ...
Portugal. Mine production: 380 MT...

As u can see China is only ranked 3rd for production.

The majority of Australia's Li is currently sold to China. Thats why they had one of their top Chinese officials here to visit WA mines recently and talk to our politicians.

I wish there were bigger and better customers to sell to in Japan, Europe and US but the demand is not enough at the moment cause they are starting so late in the EV race. China is decades ahead with investments Li refining plants and large scale battery manufacturing.

That's why it's going to take some time for this to play out and unfortunately China will still be able to dictate the Li price for a while cause there is an over supply at the moment and they are currently the biggest customer.

Hopefully when interest rates come down there will be more investments in the west and other parts of Asia to speed up their EV and ESS industries. Thats when I think there will be a serious increase in the Li demand and price.
Just look at the last Li price cycles and match them up with the period of covid lockdown and before that the GFC.

Anyway... all this is just IMO.