LFP battery/Phosphate news, page-531

Although the supply of lithium-ion batteries is increasingly going to new markets such as energy storage, the electric vehicle market remains the biggest market with Rho Motion forecasting EV sales to rise by more than 14 million units this year, from 10.2 million in 2022.

By 2030, battery supply is expected to hit almost 4TWh, a drop in the ocean to Elon Musk’s predictions that the world will need 300TWh of battery capacity to be fully sustainable.

“That would require annual battery production rising to 6.7TWh by 2030 and 11.8TWh in 2040 – a thirty-fold increase from today’s levels by mid-century,” BMI explains.

“That would require a twenty-fold increase in lithium supply to 12 million tonnes of lithium LCE and a similar increase in nickel sulphate to 8 million tonnes.

“Cobalt supply would have to increase by five times to 1 million tonnes of cobalt sulphate, and manganese by over twenty-fold to 2.5 million tonnes of manganese sulphate.”

Where will the battery production come from?

China is set to lead the charge with an estimated 78% of production this year, followed by 11% from the rest of Asia, 6% from Europe and 5% from North America.

However, the growing battery sector continues to be threatened by expectations that global lithium supply will enter deficit relative to demand by 2025.

New-York based FitchGroup says 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.

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