Day to day discussions on S/P, page-7621

This may seem obvious for some, but what we are wittnessing atm is SC6/Hydroxide disrupting brine derived carb. Mr/Mrs Market is stating there is temporary o/supply of SC6 atm until converters catch up, given brine carb has been the mainstay for a couple of decades, meaning the converters have experience in carb production and are now transitioning to Hydrox production, derived from spod con. That is the only explanation I can see for recent falls in spod con pricing.

Also, and as per KB's comments in the Dec quarterly conf call in relation to China exporting hydroxide to ROW, market consensus has followed that narrative and seem to agree that Hydrox and Carb prices will converge, thus nil abitrage between the two, which means that our offtake contracts wont be at a disadvantage to those contracts linked to both Carb and Hydrox.

ORE's half yearly stated March Qtr Carb pricing at US$9,000 pt, baring in mind a fair chunk of their carb production is tech grade, dragging down their overall realised price. SQM announce their 1/2 year results next week, and I beleive all of their production is battery grade carb, therefore will be interesting to see their carb pricing, but expecting similar to ALB's pricing, which were up for the 6 months to Dec 18.

I do wish that the Li market was more transparent so we can see the break up of Tech & Battery grade supply and pricing, becuase I believe China is taking advanatge of this opaqueness atm. However, I believe they only have a short window to do so, given LME are creating Lithium futures contracts later this year.

Nonetheless, all makes for a very interesting 2019, particularly is the money flow keeps heading down under to Oz.