"In an interview with Fastmarkets on Monday, June 5, Sarah...

"In an interview with Fastmarkets on Monday, June 5, Sarah Maryssael said that notwithstanding the possibility of more competition over chemistries in the future, the fact that commercial-scale battery technologies currently rely on lithium is driving the potential shortfall.

“I do believe we’re going to be in a structural deficit that is here to stay,” she added.

Fastmarkets analyst Phoebe O’Hara said she expects the lithium market to be in deficit until 2025, due to strong demand for lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and, increasingly, energy storage systems (ESS).

Maryssael noted that it is important to distinguish between lithium raw material units and battery-grade lithium. The specifications for lithium are dictated by battery producers, she said, and are getting tighter, not more relaxed.

“There is no consensus across the industry as to what makes a lithium spec. Those specs are getting tighter, those requirements are getting tighter, so as long as we keep moving in that direction, it’s very hard to envision a world in which lithium becomes commoditized and we enter into a potential oversupply,” she told Fastmarkets."

https://www.fastmarkets.com/insights/lithium-supply-crunch-could-impact-battery-gigafactories-andrea-hotter