Of late, electric vehicles are in an all-time high demand, so much so that almost every other major company, automobile or otherwise, has invested massively into developing their own self-driving technology and electric vehicles.
Ranging from Mercedes to the famous smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi, all have invested in this arena. This rising demand for electric vehicles which underpins the costs of raw materials, only can mean that the prices for the raw materials will go up. Likewise, the prices of lithium carbonate prices in China rose to 202,500 yuan per ton.
On the other hand, the supply for the same has tightened. Moreover, experts in this field have predicted that the deliveries for electric vehicles in China is likely to be double what it was last year, raising the numbers to almost 3 million units.
An increase in the price of lithium carbonate has caused the production cost to add an average of $470 to the production cost of an automobile’s battery. Overall, lithium carbonate prices have only increased by over 320% this year.
Although the demand has increased, the supply for the same has decreased. The Chinese mines that provide the raw materials are concentrated in remote and high-altitude regions of Tibet and Qinghai. The unfavorable geographical conditions make it harder to match the increased demand.
In other parts of the world, such as Chile, the presidential election frontrunner Gabriel Boric has expressed his plans on forming a state-owned lithium miner to extract the country’s “lithium triangle”.
Additionally, the price for the electrolytic cobalt has increased by 7000-7500 yuan/ton. The prices for cobalt carbonate, cobalt powder, cobalt oxide have increased by 5000 yuan/ton, 15000 yuan/ton, and 7500 yuan/ton respectively; whereas the price of lithium carbonate has increased by 2000-3500 yuan/ton, and lithium hydroxide rose by 2000-3000 yuan/ton.
