The next big thing, page-2

"When looking at how prices will trend in the near term, for Miller, the cost structure in China means the space is moving close to the bottom of the market there, but there will be limited upside to pricing.“As a result, rest of the world suppliers will be forced to bring prices down towards China levels to remain competitive and (that is why) you’re likely to see continued softening of prices into 2020, although the decreases will be less extreme than in H1 2019,” he added.

"Everywhere you look you see a common denominator regarding why sentiment has dropped for the "lithium" sector. China reducing prices"!!!
For anyone who has been in manufacturing businesses, the factor that always was the catalyst for depressing pressure on those companies was the competition from China's much lower prices.They flood the market with their cheaply produced goods and government policy to drop prices (short term pain for long term gain) and then when the competition is too depressed or knocked out completely, they come back in with their higher prices and dominate through lack of, or, greatly reduced, competition.
While there is not formal benchmark prices for Lithium , i.e. through the LME, China effectively controls prices and naturally, to its own advantage.
When the LME/Fastmarkets develop that globally accepted benchmark, the fundamentals of supply and demand will return and prices will stabilize and banks and lenders will be much happier to support those that have an appropriate business model.
Watch that space, it WILL be a very positive catalyst for the entire lithium sector, especially for high grade battery quality products.