(相关资料图)
Image source: China Visual
BEIJNG, August 1 (TMTPOST) -- With lithium prices continuing to stay high, China is accelerating the development of lithium resources. Chinese domestic lithium production this year is expected to increase by 200,000 tons year-on-year, an increase of 41.6%.
China Nonferrous Industry Association Lithium Branch Vice President Zhang Jiangfeng made the prediction Last Saturday at the 2022 China New Energy Materials Industry Chain High-End Forum.
In the first half of this year, the domestic production of lithium carbonate was about 204,000 tons, lithium hydroxide about 118,000 tons, and the total equivalent lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) 308,000 tons, basically to meet the needs of midstream and downstream enterprises. Last year, China produced 480,000 tons of lithium salt LCE.
As a key raw material for power batteries, lithium resources have a long
development cycle and cannot quickly meet the needs driven by the exponential growth of downstream new energy vehicle sales. Lithium prices continue to soar due to undersupply, and briefly touched a high of 500,000 yuan / ton in March this year. As of last Friday, the trading of domestic lithium carbonate closed at 472,500 yuan/ton, up by 62.9% from the start of the year.
Despite China being a major lithium salt processing country, it is highly dependent on imports of lithium raw material, with a high external dependence of 65% in 2021. Stimulated by high prices, domestic lithium resource projects are accelerating. Zhang said that China"s lithium resources are abundant, but the quality is poor and difficult to develop. Compared with Australia"s hard rock lithium mine and South America"s salt lake lithium resources, the development cost is relatively high, he added
On the demand side, Zhang predicted that during the "14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025)" period, China and the global demand for lithium will grow significantly, and the world lithium production and consumption is expected to grow at an annual rate of about 30%. New energy vehicles, energy storage and other demand for lithium will continue to grow, and this does not rule out a jump in the incremental demand for lithium at a certain stage.
