General Discussion, page-129

Todays fin review - my bolding

“Mainland China’s lithium production is set to grow by 15.0 per cent y-o-y in 2022, buoyed by surging lithium carbonate (LCE) prices and new production from the Lijiagou mine in Sichuan Province coming online. LCE prices tripled between 2020 and 2021, reaching USD18,050/tonne.

“We forecast more modest average annual production growth of 6.1 per cent y-o-y for 2022-2031 as increases in China’s output lag the rate of global increase.“

Fitch said China’s rare earths exports stood at $US15. billion in 2020, down from a 2018 peak of $US20.2 billion.

“Rising prices for LCE will raise the value of rare earths exports for 2021 2022 and in the coming years. However, we expect that China’s share of global lithium production peaked in 2021 at 17.9 per cent and will fall slightly to 17.5 per cent in 2022 and steadily after that down to 13.2 per cent by 2031.”

Fitch also said global lithium supply is expected to enter deficit relative to demand by 2025, and Chinese manufacturers are more likely to seek foreign supply to meet future needs than rely on an accelerated expansion of domestic production given the environmental scrutiny facing new projects and intensive use of water for lithium extraction.