In Nov 2022, the price of lithium carbonate rose to 500,000 yuan (about KRW 91,245,000) per ton due to shortage in supply. With such unprecedented price of lithium carbonate, CATL even offered lithium carbonate rebate of 200,000yuan (about KRW 36.5 million) per ton to electric vehicle OEMs.
However, the price of lithium carbonate began to fall as news has been spreading of China's reduced electric vehicle subsidies and increased inventory in battery manufacturers, and plunged to 150,000 yuan (about 27.37 million won) per ton as of Apr 2023.
With the advent of the electric vehicle era, the proportion of secondary batteries in the total lithium usage has increased from 40% in 2014 to about 80% in 2023. As such, the electric vehicle market has been increasingly influenced by the impact of changes in the lithium market. However, the long lead time (the time from mine excavation to production), the nature of the mining market, made it difficult to satisfy the increased lithium demand due to the growth of the electric vehicle market. As a result, volatility of lithium price is increasing and has direct impact on corporate margins of EV makers and secondary battery manufacturers.
Currently, lithium mining is taking place in a small number of countries, including Chile and Australia. However, news of discovery of huge amount of lithium deposits has been newly announced in countries such as Bolivia, Iran, and India, and several countries including Europe and Africa have reported that they will mine lithium. SNE Research predicts that there will be total 24 lithium mining countries in 2030.
Reports of the discovery of lithium mines are raising hopes that the deposits will fully meet the demand from the electric vehicle market, but there are errors in this assumption. Only a few mines are commercially viable in the stage of exploration, and there is long lead time of 5-10 years till actual mining. Apart from the increase in global reserves, the actual supply of the lithium mining companies and the mines should be closely monitored. The balance between supply forecast and demand in the secondary battery market will be an important means for future upstream market strategies and predicting price fluctuations.
This report describes the overall market status, policies and strategies by different countries, and prediction of supply, demand, and price for lithium metal. Especially, forecast of the lithium demand in this report provides specific figures for each battery manufacturer and each cathode material product. And also, the report forecasts lithium supply by considering the production volume of all mining projects. From these two figures, we create a model for demand-supply balance scenario and predict price till 2030.
We hope that the report will help readers understand the overall lithium metal industry and prepare for future fluctuations of lithium raw material by looking at the outlook provided by the insightful report of SNE Research.
The strong points of this report are;
Lithium production forecast and lithium policies of existing and new lithium mining countries till 2030
Outlook for how major battery manufacturers secure lithium and consumption of lithium till 2030
Outlook for chemical composition of cathode materials and lithium demand by product till 2030
*LFP, Mid-Ni 523/622, High Ni NCM/NCMA Ni>80%, LCO, LCA, NMx, LMO, NCM 111/424.
A forecasting scenario of adjusted amount of lithium production based on supply and demand and the balance between supply and demand of lithium metal
Forecast of the lithium price based on processing cost and supply and demand in major mining countries till 2030
Table of Contents
1. Overview of secondary batteries
1.1. What are secondary batteries?
1.2. Raw materials for secondary battery components
1.3. Cathode materials
1.3.1. Components
1.3.2. Content of major materials
1.3.3. Metal content (Kg/KWh)
1.3.4. Note) Mineral content per one electric vehicle
2. Overview of lithium metal
2.1. Overview of lithium
2.2. Applications and characteristics by product
Note) Lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide
2.3. Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (Li2CO3,LCE)
2.4. Forms of natural deposit
2.5. Production ratio by ore type
2.6. Lithium usage ratio by industry
3. Lithium mining technology
3.1. Mining process - brine type
3.2. Mining process - hard-rock type
3.3. Technology development for lithium recovery
3.4. Process comparison of lithium extraction
Note) Trends of recycling regulations in major countries
Note) Risks of lithium ESG
4. Lithium policy by country
4.1. Lithium policy in China
4.2. Lithium policy in Central South America
4.2.1. Chile
4.2.2. Brazil
4.2.3. Argentina
4.2.4. Bolivia
4.2.5. Mexico
Note) Latest lithium policy in Central South America