Lithium carbonate: a backstab derived from lithium sulfate

This week, the domestic lithium carbonate market has been falling for four consecutive days, and spot prices has also dropped by 1000-1500 yuan/ton compared to last weekend. Although some lithium salt manufacturers in Jiangxi have resumed production, some old goods have flowed into the market after the cancellation of warehouse receipts, and the decline in lithium carbonate inventory has narrowed, downstream enterprises have been fully pushing forward, and the month-on-month decline in lithium battery production in December is significantly lower than in the previous two years. As a result, the supply and demand situation has not deteriorated significantly.

At this time, however, the sudden increase in Chile's lithium sulfate exports had a certain impact on market sentiment.

Throughout the first 10 months of this year, Chile's normal export volume of lithium sulfate was only about 5000 tons, but the increase in November's export volume was very alarming.

In the past, lithium sulfate exported from Chile to China was mainly used to produce lithium hydroxide in the Sichuan plant. However, after the export volume increases substantially, many resources will flow to other lithium salt manufacturers for the production of lithium carbonate, and the market supply pressure is expected to increase, resulting in short-term downward pressure on the market.