Battery-grade lithium carbonate prices weaken week-on-week, cobalt sulfate CIF North Asia prices fall

1. The prices of battery-grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide have weakened on a week-on-week basis.

Lithium market participants returned to the market after the Spring Festival holiday and showed little boost to sentiment. China's domestic prices fell on a week-on-week basis.

This week, the Su0026P Global Platts battery-grade lithium carbonate valuation fell by US$50 to US$12,550/ton CIF North Asia. The valuation of lithium hydroxide also fell by US$50 to US$15,550/ton. The above valuation is for products delivered to major ports in China, Japan and South Korea. China's domestic prices have also declined this week, with the valuation of lithium carbonate falling by RMB 1,000 to 79,000 per ton of DDP (delivery price including tax), and the valuation of lithium hydroxide by RMB 2,000 to RMB 103,000 per ton of DDP.

The valuations of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide both remain higher than China's import parity. According to the Platts import parity formula, the CIF valuation of USD 12,550/ton for lithium carbonate is equivalent to RMB 98,500/ton (including 16% value-added tax). On the same basis, the CIF valuation of lithium hydroxide is equivalent to 122,000 yuan/ton. At 4:30 pm Singapore time on Friday, the US dollar to RMB exchange rate was 6.7623.

There is limited trading activity in China's domestic market this week. An East China manufacturer said that he has not reached any spot transactions since the Spring Festival. However, he received quotations from several customers, implying that demand will emerge in the next few weeks.

For another large Chinese manufacturer, this week was even calmer, during which no inquiry was received. The manufacturer estimates that many cathode material manufacturers will continue to be absent from the market before February 20.

The manufacturer is not worried about insufficient demand, saying that their lithium hydroxide production has been ordered before the Spring Festival.

But he does not expect the price to fall, and believes that some small-scale sellers have lowered their quotations after the Spring Festival in order to withdraw funds more quickly.

According to a Chinese cathode material manufacturer, although the quotation has reached a higher level of 84-86 thousand yuan/ton, the current transactions of lithium carbonate by several large manufacturers The price is 80,000 yuan/ton. The person was also informed that a large-scale manufacturer using spodumene as a raw material quoted lithium hydroxide at 10-102,000 yuan/ton.

Another cathode material manufacturer continues to believe that the transaction price of lithium hydroxide is 105,000 yuan/ton, and the transaction price of lithium carbonate is 78,000 yuan/ton. He also said that some large buyers may be able to obtain more favorable prices than this.

Another consumer also believes that the tradeable price range of lithium carbonate is between 78,000 and 79,000 yuan/ton, but he has enough inventory to be available until March, so he is there There was no need to enter the market before.

It is said that lithium carbonate can be purchased in larger quantities to obtain lower prices. A European consumer said that it has bought lithium carbonate in China at 70,000 yuan/ton. He '(considering import parity) will not purchase imported resources at a level higher than Chinese prices, so international resource prices should not be higher than 8,900 US dollars/ton CIF China, or 10,300 US dollars/ton CIF Korea.' Two destinations The price gap reflects China’s 16% value-added tax.

He also reported that he bought lithium hydroxide at a price of 105,000 yuan/ton DDP China, and expected that the price of lithium hydroxide “will continue to move closer to lithium carbonate until the two The gap between the participants reached US$2,000/ton.'

2. After the holiday, trading was quiet, and the price of cobalt sulfate CIF in North Asia fell

The long-awaited end of the Spring Festival holiday did not bring a wave of trading activities to shipping and China's domestic cobalt sulfate market.

Due to declining demand, Su0026P Global Platts' valuation of 20.5% cobalt sulfate cobalt sulfate fell by US$200 to US$12,600/ton CIF North Asia on Thursday.

Market participants are still absent from the market this week, resulting in limited activities.

Consumers who have returned to the market are not in a hurry to purchase resources, because they have bought a lot of goods before the holiday.

A consumer said: “We have purchased enough materials for production until the end of February, so we have no intention of purchasing at this time.” The consumer believes that due to other consumer inventories The situation is similar, and the price of cobalt sulfate is likely to fall further.

This decline ended the short-term stability of the price of cobalt sulfate-after the sharp fluctuation in 2018, the price of cobalt sulfate had remained at US$12,800 for four consecutive weeks before Thursday. /Ton CIF North Asia unchanged.

The domestic quotation level in China was lower than the week before the holiday. A consumer said that it had rejected a quotation-equivalent to 65,500 yuan/ton DDP after standardization conversion.

There are also some comments on the price gap between cobalt chloride and cobalt sulfate in the market. A market participant believes that if the price of cobalt sulfate is referenced, the price of cobalt sulfate will fall, and said that if this pricing method is adopted, the market price will be between 61,000 and 62,000 yuan/ton.

In terms of other battery metals, nickel sulfate prices also fell slightly this week. A consumer said that China's domestic price was 500 yuan/ton lower than before the Spring Festival, and believed that the current transaction price was between 245,000 and 25,000 yuan/ton.