The demand for battery metal is very pricey, or the downward pattern or reverse?
Last week, driven by improved economic data in China and Europe, basic metal prices fluctuated at a high level, and the quotation of lithium salt rebounded. The quotation of industrial grade lithium carbonate rose 1.5% from the previous month, which is an important lithium battery material. On the news, sales of electric vehicles in Europe continued to recover in August, and domestic car companies and leading power battery companies continued to increase their production schedules. The operating rate is expected to reach the peak of this year. The output of battery core materials in August has increased significantly year-on-year. Xingye believes that, The increase in market demand is mainly driven by the “C-end”, the demand structure is significantly optimized, and the demand in the terminal market during peak seasons may rise in an all-round way. Looking at the world, lithium prices have experienced unilateral declines for up to two years. The price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has fallen below 40,000 yuan/ton. Li Chao, an analyst at CITIC Securities, said that the current low lithium price has caused Chinese lithium carbonate manufacturers. The overall loss. Since 2020, Australian mines and Chinese companies have signed long-term orders to restart and further clarify the bottom signal of lithium prices. Since July, lithium carbonate prices in China and South America have shown signs of rebound. CITIC believes that despite the impact of the epidemic, the accelerated rise of the overseas electric vehicle market, the increase in the penetration rate of 5G mobile phones, and the contrarian growth in segments such as electric bicycles and TWS headsets have kept lithium consumption in the battery sector relatively resilient. In terms of production capacity, affected by the epidemic and low lithium prices, global lithium resource expansion projects have been suspended and delayed on a large scale. From January to August 2020, the domestic output of ternary materials fell 16.2%. CITIC believes that in the lithium salt sector, although the planned production capacity of Chinese companies is significantly surplus, the actual surplus is not serious considering the construction and capacity ramping cycles of more than three years. The turning point of the industry balance may come early.