Seven things we learned about the lithium market

• Autores: Industrial Minerals
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 612, 2019 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Septiembre)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Fastmarkets identified seven main takeaways from its 11th Lithium Supply and Markets Conference in Santiago in June.New investments are key A scarcity of capital in the lithium sector is a concern for many market participants, given the expected growth of downstream demand.Although consumption of lithium carbonate equivalent is on track to grow to 1 million tonnes by 2025 from just below 300,000 tonnes in 2018, supply from new projects may fall short of this increased demand, depending on the pace of growth in the electric vehicle (EV) market. Flexibility is essential for survival Lithium carbonate is set to remain the most widely used lithium compound in lithium-ion batteries in the coming years.This is despite market participants anticipating lithium hydroxide overtaking lithium carbonate usage once production and adoption of nickel-rich cathodes, such as nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) 622 and 811, which typically use hydroxide, ramp up.Producers Albemarle, SQM and Tianqi agreed that flexibility remains vital for addressing diverse industrial and technological challenges. Nickel-rich batteries to dominate in the next few years Delegates agreed that lithium-ion batteries with higher nickel content will dominate the market in the foreseeable future.Despite increasing short-term use of lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) and lithium-manganese-oxide (LMO) batteries in China, production and consumption of more advanced nickel-rich NCM 622 and 811 batteries are set to increase.