Good News & Bad News, page-12082

• Asian lithium carbonate dropped further in the seaborne market June 28, as spot demand remained thin.
  
  Although lithium hydroxide remained unchanged, some sources believed it could edge down soon.
  Platts assessed lithium carbonate at $72,500/mt on June 28, unchanged on the day and down $500/mt from June 21. Lithium hydroxide was also unchanged on the day and up $100/mt on the week at $76,000/mt, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights data.
  The prices reflect the spot value of battery-grade material on a CIF North Asia basis, referring to deliveries to the main ports of China, Japan and South Korea. Lithium carbonate, however, is normalized to deliveries at the Shanghai port.
  Demand for spot shipments has been much softer than at the beginning of the year since consumers are now covered with their contracts, sources said. Moreover, the slowdown in the Chinese market activity caused by the recent lockdowns helped reduce the mismatch between supply and demand, even when producers have limited availability of battery grade material for spot requirements.
  “This portion of the year is seasonally weaker, but demand in China will resurge significantly when it fully reopens, which will make prices go up again,” believed a seller source, who has been selling technical grade material in other regions above the current battery grade Asian prices.
  He concurred battery grade spot material should be covering about $71,000-$75,000/mt for lithium carbonate and $75,000-$76,000/mt for lithium hydroxide.
  “The market in general has been more bearish recently,” said a trader source. "Although there are still offers as high as $80,000/mt for battery grade lithium hydroxide, most of the market is talking about “mid-$70,000.” Battery grade carbonate can be found as low as $68,000/mt, the source added.
  A technical grade hydroxide consumer source was holding back his orders since he saw offers move progressively lower -- from as high as $75,000/mt a few months ago to $68,000/mt at the moment. He was concerned, though, about a possible plateauing in chemicals’ prices due to the surging spodumene costs.
  The Platts $72,500/mt assessment for battery grade lithium carbonate CIF North Asia was equivalent to Yuan 548,534/mt on a DDP China basis, including 13% value-added tax, based on S&P Global Commodity Insights’ import-parity calculation.
  The DDP China lithium carbonate price was assessed at Yuan 469,500/mt June 28, meaning seaborne prices were well above Chinese domestic prices. The dollar was assessed at Yuan 6.693 at 4:30 pm Singapore time.