Good News & Bad News, page-18715

Lithium prices outside of China remained unaffected by a slowdown in the Chinese domestic market Nov. 22.

Fundamentals remain supportive and there are no drops on the horizon, sources said.
Platts assessed lithium carbonate up $300/mt on Nov. 22 from Nov. 21 at $78,000/mt – also up $1,300/mt from Nov. 15. Lithium hydroxide was unchanged on the day and down $100/mt on the week at $84,000/mt.
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.
Lithium hydroxide has been flattish for over one week as the current price level has been finding a balance between consumers’ limits and sellers’ expectations – which are mostly driven by the Chinese domestic hydroxide prices, since the country accounts for the vast majority of the world’s hydroxide conversion capacity.
Lithium carbonate, however, has been steadily moving up. Not only has the spot availability of battery-grade material been thin, but also the gap to lithium hydroxide was considered unsustainable by some market participants as the cost to convert carbonate into hydroxide is typically about $2,000/mt.
Sources expect seaborne lithium prices should to strong in the coming weeks. “The Asian market always has a delay against China, so prices could maintain some uptrend despite the cap in Chinese domestic prices,” said a producer source who was basing his offers on “current market prices.”
Another producer source who was offering carbonate at $80,000/mt emphasized that “even at this price, there's still a gap with Chinese domestic prices.” He believes “the gap will have to close eventually, it cannot be sustained for long periods of time,” he said, adding he was offering hydroxide at $84,000-85,000/mt