Good News & Bad News, page-12400

Interesting commentary on the upcoming auction.However, management did say there had been interest from broad range of participants in the last auction.Gunna be interesting alright!

• Lithium salts prices remain stable on day, down on week
• Increase resistance toward spodumene price hikes

China’s lithium prices remained stable in the week to July 8.

Lithium hydroxide and carbonate prices diverged on varying downstream demand from nickel-manganese-cobalt, or NMC, battery and lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, battery markets.
Battery grade lithium carbonate was assessed at Yuan 470,100/mt July 8 on a delivered, duty-paid China basis, stable on the day but down Yuan 4,900/mt on the week, according to Platts assessment from S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Tradable values were pegged at Yuan 470,000-475,000/mt in the week to July 8, stable week on week.
Despite the bullish demand and recovery of the overall electric vehicles market, demand for NMC batteries, one of the many types of batteries deployed in EVs, remained weaker than LFP battery demand within domestic China.
Other battery applications also shared similar fate as the NMC market.
Lithium cobalt, or LCO, battery faced the greatest struggle of all, as evidenced by the weak sales numbers and transition into 5G. “LCO and the 3C market is practically dead,” a Chinese lithium consumer said.
“All other battery applications are not doing well too so that balances things out,” he added.
Demand for lithium manganese oxide, or LMO, batteries remained stable as producers were able to procure and tap into cheaper lithium salts from their inventories.
Recovery of NMC demand remained slow, sources cite high cobalt and nickel prices as the primary cause. This was is in contrast to LFP batteries, which only requires battery-grade lithium carbonate.
With bullish LFP battery demand, some sources have also turned to industrial grade lithium carbonate to refine into battery-grade materials. However, prices for industrial-grade materials have been hovering at Yuan 450,000-460,000/mt, which makes the spread of Yuan 10,000/mt between battery-grade and industrial-grade materials too small for profitable margins.
Cost processing and refining industrial grade to battery grade is currently pegged at Yuan 20,000-30,000/mt, a Chinese trader said.
Poor NMC demand had continued to pressure lithium hydroxide prices. Battery grade lithium hydroxide was assessed at Yuan 460,100/mt unchanged on the day but down Yuan 4,900/mt on the week.
“There has been a slight increase in prices but battery-grade lithium hydroxide is not catching up with the overall rise in prices,” a Chinese consumer said.
Moving further upstream, spodumene concentrate with 6% lithium oxide content (SC6) was assessed at $6,450/mt FOB Australia July 8, unchanged on the week, according to Platts assessment from S&P Global Commodity Insights.
The latest spot spodumene tender concluded at $6,350/dmt for 5.5% lithium oxide, equivalent to $7,017/mt on a SC6.0 CIF China basis, inclusive of freight costs, is deemed to be unrepeatable by market sources.
Sources pinned tradable range at $6,000-$6,500/mt in the week to July 8.
“For smaller volumes I think $5,000-6,000/mt is reasonable,” said a Chinese trader.
“I hope the next auction price will remain level or go a bit lower, doesn't make any sense to go higher,” said a Chinese battery maker.
Looking forward, market sources are expecting further pick up in prices in July to August as it is currently a lull season for the industry