Posted on 11 Sep 2023
Chinese lithium carbonate futures trading at the Guangzhou Futures Exchange hit new lows on Friday, with contract prices dropping over 20% since August, Kallanish reports.
The contract for January delivery dropped 4.95% on-day to CNY 176,500/tonne ($24,047/t). Trading for the other six contracts declined between 3.96% and 4.95%, with the lowest price being the contract for June delivery.
Prices on the spot market also fell. According to Mysteel’s data, the average price for battery-grade lithium carbonate shrunk by CNY 3,000/t to CNY 198,500/t on Friday, compared to the day before. This is also the second time that spot prices have dropped below the CNY 200,000/t level. Prices had been above this threshold for about four months.
Everbright Securities notes the recovery of downstream demand is still the major factor driving the price fall. With the current background of insufficient demand confidence, there is still great pressure on battery-grade lithium carbonate prices.
“Downstream companies still maintain on-demand procurement after a short replenishment period. Last week, the operating rate and output of lithium iron phosphate continued to fall slightly, and the weekly operating rate of ternary precursors fell to 64.49%, indicating weak weekly demand,” analysts said. “Although the overall lithium iron phosphate production schedule increased slightly month-on-month in September, it was lower than expected.”
The broker adds that the energy storage shipments and new energy vehicle sales data are relatively good, but failed to support lithium carbonate prices.
Source:Kallanish
