Banter and general comments, page-19

This presentation provides a good explanation of changes in Li prices:

1. little Li is sold on the spot market with most sold on contracts - there will be a lot of contracts finishing this year and the cost of Li in new contracts will be higher (ie finished contracts started before the big increase in prices and will renew at higher prices) - the average price of Li in 2023 is expected to be higher than in 2022
2. China spot prices were impacted by 2 factors
- reducing subsidies of EVs end of 2022 which brought forward purchase of EVs hence, increased demand for Li in late 22 and thus slowed down purchase of EVs in 2023
- China is introducing tough new emissions on ICE vehicles from July 23 - a lot of ICE cars not able to be sold after June 23 are being sold at big discounts (eg 40%-50%) reducing demand for EVs

These two issues are distorted demand fir EVs and ICE vehicles in China with flow on impact to Li prices.

4. Li spot prices outside China are still very high and have not fallen as much as in China