UPDATE 3-Australia's Pilbara Minerals says lithium prices may...

UPDATE 3-Australia's Pilbara Minerals says lithium prices may have bottomed

Recasts and writes through)
MELBOURNE, July 24 (Reuters) - Australia's Pilbara Minerals CEO said on Wednesday that customer orders for its lithium remained strong and prices may have bottomed after the exit of higher cost suppliers this year.
The country's biggest pure-play lithium miner said it had posted a 58% jump in June quarter revenue from March due to an increase in sales volume and average realised prices as it reported its quarterly production.
Revenue jumped to A$305 million ($201.64 million) for the three months ended June 30, compared to A$192 million in the March quarter and it said it expects higher production in the current 2025 financial year.
"We continue to see strong demand from all our major customers," Pilbara Minerals CEO Dale Henderson told an analyst briefing.
"It is incredibly hard to predict what is the bottom for the market, however I do take a lot of comfort from the fact that we have seen other supply sources come out of the market in the March quarter," he added.
High-cost supply closures included lepidolite production in China and Africa and some Australian output, he added.
Prices for lithium raw material spodumene are trading close to three-year lows at $970 per metric ton.
Pilbara Minerals shares were up 0.9% on Wednesday in a downbeat Australian lithium sector.
Broadly, some "doomsday headlines don't reconcile with the broadly strong growth market," Henderson said.
In particular, lithium demand from energy storage systems, such as those that back up solar arrays, is growing fast from a low base, and has the potential to be a "sleeping giant" for consumption, he added.
Pilbara Minerals said it expected output in the current financial year of between 800,000 to 840,000 metric tons of spodumene concentrate, up from 725,300 tons in the 12 months ended June 30.
It attributed the production forecast to a further increase in capacity from two major brownfields expansion projects being brought online.
In the June quarter, sales of spodumene concentrate jumped 43% to 235,800 tons, the company said. ($1 = 1.5126 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne and Echha Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona and Jamie Freed)
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