...lithium industry leaders want to be hopeful that should there be more supply cuts, prices would recover.
...they don't believe demand is the problem, because they believe in the EV growth, i.e with EV growth comes lithium demand growth and therefore prices would go higher.
...but the reality is that both CATL and BYD command a lion share of the EV battery market and they have their access to their own lithium supply with little to no impact on the spot market. And those that do, mainly Tesla are regressing in the EV market compounding the demand side problem for non-vertical suppliers like Aussie lithium miners. The bigger issue for our Aussie lithium miners looms ahead once US lithium supplies come onstream to supply Tesla and legacy US autos.
...I highlighted these issues months and months ago on this thread as well as in LTR forum but lithium hodlers were to sold about the future outlook of the EV industry.
...my guess is that our lithium players would gain some reprieve selling their stock into Albo's strategic critical mineral reserve, though if I am not wrong there is a limited shelf life so unlike iron ore, you could not just stockpile while undertaking several months long negotiations.
"But the lithium hydroxide made by the Greenbushes owners at Kemerton and Kwinana has a comparatively short shelf life; it starts to degrade after six months.
So stockpiling lithium hydroxide at a time of weaker-than-expected electric vehicle demand isn’t really a smart thing to do." Lithium miners: Greenbushes cuts a reminder that lithium is not iron ore
