Global Lithium Market Stagger and New Reforms with Estimates Announced in September 2022

New Delhi: The overall Lithium market throughout September remains consolidated, showcasing a staggering upward trend. The benchmark prices for the critical raw battery materials such as Lithium Carbonate and Lithium Hydroxide observed a significant uptrend in the offers on a month-on-month basis. In addition, the quotations for Lithium Carbonate has similar to the levels witnessed in January 2022, or we can say hovering near the highest level. The cost support from key feedstock Spoudumene has also soared tremendously due to its admiration and acceptance over brine amongst major Lithium producers, and the quotations have witnessed a five-fold increment since Q4 2020. At the same time, the market dynamics for Lithium remain stagnant, with exceptional demand from downstream industries that outstripped the supply capabilities.

In Northeast Asia, the offers quoted by the Chinese-based Lithium producers over 30 days observed a significant improvement in almost all the Lithium derivatives that are essential for battery manufacturing. The 99.5% Lithium Carbonate spot offers were up by 1.21%, and Lithium Hydroxide was up by 0.92%. At the same time, the quotations of Spoudumene witnessed an improvement of 4.08% crossing the USD 5000 per tonne mark in mid-September 2022. However, the consistent strengthening of the USD against the CNY impacted the spot prices, especially for the exported volumes.

In mid-September, as the market activities across Northwest Europe resumed, the European Union passed the “Critical Raw Material Act” to secure the supply of Lithium and rare earth metal. Its demand is anticipated to increase by five folds by 2030 to replace oil & gas in an ambition to become the climate neutral continent. The Critical Raw Material Act will help focus on strategic applications, networking amongst the European agencies, a more resilient supply chain, and a solid & sustainable level playing field. Two days later, Belgian chemicals group Solvay plans to create the second European site for rare earth metals to break its reliance on Chinese supplies. At the same time, a study was conducted by the BMI that concluded that 74 new 45 KTPA LCE mines or 59 mines (if including recycling) were required by 2035 to cope with the domestic appetite for the North American region alone.