That's exactly right @DaisyAEven CATL is getting ready for the...

That's exactly right @DaisyA
Even CATL is getting ready for the huge supply/demand deficit which is going to get wider in 2026.

Pay attention to the dates of CATL's agreement with Yahua. It starts from beginning of January 2026 and ends on Dec.2028. 3 years agreement.

January 2026 is less than 16 months away from today. It's very close.

Yahua already owns a lithium mine in Zimbabwe. Its first phase production was supposed to start production in May 2024, and the second phase later in 2024.

But it looks like Yahua couldn't get the Zimbabwean plant working properly, or it's a high cost project, or it's not viable by the current prices, or Yahua needs more lithium than it can produce.

Or all of these valid at the same time...!



Why is Yahua so much hungry for lithium?

Yahua is also selling around 80kt lithium hydroxide to LG Energy btw!

Where is Yahua going to get the lithium spodumene concentrate from?
!
PLS and Yahua just singed a offtake deal on top of its existing deal in March 2024 just before Yahua started its production in Zimbabwe.

And that agreement covers 2026 year as well.

That is similar to Sinomine - LTR offtake agreement (only for 100kt in 10 months though) as Sinomine has also Bikita mine in Zimbabwe.



YAHUA - CATL RELATION

GETTING READY FOR BIG SUPPLY DEFICIT

In fact CATL is one of two main actors (the other one is BYD) of this fake oversupply story, they now got anxious that the supply deficit might be huge because the Australian suppliers now want to cut production.

CATL and BYD have owned and financed those dirty lepidolite mines in China by the subsidies of local and central (CCP) government bodies. When the lithium price was high there were also a lot of independent mines and non-integrated process plants extracting and processing lepidolite ore.

Now majority of those independent lepidolite mines and non-integrated plants were already closed. CATL and BYD are keep financing their own mines and plants at loss due to very low lithium price. However the risk of creating a supply deficit is getting bigger every day because the demand is growing at least 30% world wide. As you can see from the news yesterday the NEW (BEV+PHEV) sales has now reached to 53% in China. That is huge.

CATL is the world's largest battery producer with 37% share. So they can't play game with lepidolite mines anymore, or they think they shouldn't I guess.

Instead of playing with the lithium prices and investing in inferior lithium mines CATL and BYD should be minding their own businesses, should be creating new battery technologies.

Otherwise the Korean battery producers might eat CATL's shares in market. I'm sure LG is already trying to do that and Samsun and SKI are following very closely. Japanese battery producers will not be sitting idle either.

Samsung has already made its solid state lithium batteries and sent them to auto OEMs in the west. That's going to be a game changer in next couple of year IMO.

Anyway, let's wait and see what the Chinese lithium supply chain react to Australian lithium mine reduction activities. They might go into panic state again and start buying for huge restocking as they did in 2021.