Australia's lithium export 'boom' underwhelms

Peter KerResources reporter
Jun 27, 2019

Australian lithium exports are growing much slower than expected, and weak demand in China has analysts predicting prices for the battery commodity have further to fall.

This year was supposed to be the year a "wall'' of new supply crushed lithium prices – but while prices have slumped, export data suggests supply growth has been modest and is not solely to blame.

Galaxy Resources confirmed this week that its export volumes for the six months to June 30 would be just half that shipped by the company in the first half of last year.

Galaxy said a schedule delay would ensure a shipment due before Sunday now would depart later in the year. The admission came after the company blamed extremely weak exports in the first three months of 2019 on its customers having high inventory levels.

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Fastmarkets expects a lithium surplus of 146,000 tonnes in 2020, but most pundits expect demand to catch up in the mid-2020s when adoption of electric vehicles picks up.

The bearish market conditions have attracted short-sellers to the lithium sector, with Orocobre the seventh most shorted stock on the Australian Securities Exchange, Galaxy the eighth and Pilbara Minerals the 12th most shorted.


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