Reuters NEWS FLASH LONDON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Prices of lithium...

Reuters NEWS FLASH
LONDON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Prices of lithium carbonate in China jumped to a record high of $41,925 a tonne in December driven by strong demand from manufacturers of the batteries that power electric vehicles, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) said.

Lithium carbonate is used for lithium iron phosphate (LFP)batteries. Sales of electric vehicles which use these batteries have been accelerating in China.

BMI's assessment puts the mid-point of Chinese lithium carbonate prices in December at $39,250 a tonne, a gain of 485.8% from the same period a year ago. The range was $36,575 to $41,925 a tonne.

Higher lithium carbonate prices have been driven primarily by strong demand from the electric vehicle battery sector during 2021 and compounded by seasonal restocking of inventories ahead of "Spring Festival 2022 in China", BMI said.

"The re-emergence of domestic Chinese lithium iron phosphate (batteries) has pushed lithium carbonate prices to all-time highs in 2021, a trend that is expected to continue as the market enters 2022," BMI said.

"Lithium carbonate producer stocks have been depleted on continued high demand and remain at low to non-existent levels." =============================================
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Commodities had a great run in 2021, buoyed by gradual economic recovery from the pandemic and supply-side constraints on a variety of products. Prices for fossil fuels, agricultural products, and industrial metals all rose throughout the year, in several cases more than doubling.

The best performance by a sector overall was in fossil fuels, thanks to OPEC oil production cuts and the fact that energy commodity prices spent much of 2020 wallowing at low levels as global transportation froze up.

Coffee also did very well, driven by shipping constraints, and drought and cold weather in Brazil.

But no commodity came close to lithium, the soft metal that is crucial for batteries. As the market for electric vehicles takes off, global demand for lithium exceeded supply for the first time in 2021, according to S&P Global, and the deficit is projected to widen. As a result, the price of lithium rose by about 437%, according to data from Trading Economics, to nearly $43,000 per ton.

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