Lithium hydroxide
Lithium hydroxide – In the first half of 2023, the lithium hydroxide market in China showed a general downward trend. According to SunSirs Commodity Market Analysis System, the average price of lithium hydroxide for domestic industrial companies was equivalent to US$77.00/Kg on January 1st, falling to US$46.00 on June 30th. The market has dropped 39.91% in half a year, and 29.75% less than the same period last year. August brought more declines.
According to the Lithium Hydroxide Monthly Rise and Fall Chart from January to June 2023, the monthly price of lithium hydroxide in the first half of 2023 had a small increase, a large decline, and an overall decline. The market situation improved in May and June, while other months fell. The biggest drop was in April (29.93%) and the biggest increase was in May (18.45%).
According to the London Metal Exchange (LME), which weekly publishes the main valuations of Fastmarkets MB for lithium hydroxide, August saw a significant drop in prices, closing the month at US$34.92/Kg and a projection for US$31, 70/Kg for the month of September.
In an interview with the Fastmarkets website, Albermale Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Scott Tozier said during the company’s earnings conference call on Wednesday, August 2nd.
“In the last year, we have seen dramatic increases in lithium and spodumene prices. Due to the time lapse in spodumene inventory, we noticed that lithium prices rose faster than the spodumene cost of goods sold,” he said.
“This year is the opposite. As prices decline, we are seeing lithium prices falling faster than spodumene costs, and we expect most of that impact to repeat in the third quarter,” added Tozier.
“We don’t have the confidence to know exactly what the price is going to do, but we believe the market will remain pretty tight next year as well,” said Albemarle’s president of lithium, Eric Norris. during the call.
“There will be significant growth in demand in the market and, in fact, there will also be further growth in supply, but those two will be pretty much equivalent, right? It will be a pretty tight market,” added Norris.
