Understanding the greatest risks and the impacts to the supply chains of critical raw materials including battery raw materials, green metals and rare earths

China’s lithium prices continued to trend downward amid weak demand and futures weakness over the week to Thursday July 25

Persistently high import volumes of lithium carbonate into China have intensified oversupply in the country's domestic market for the material at a time when demand remains weak, sources told Fastmarkets on Tuesday July 23

Rapidly expanding capacity for the recycling of lithium-ion batteries in the United States and Canada has raised worries over the supply of raw materials to feed processors in the region, sources have told Fastmarkets

China’s nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) battery output in June registered fell to 20.5 gigawatts hours (GWh), down by 1.5 GWh, or 6.8%, from the 22 GWh in May, and down by 3.7 GWh, or 15.3%, from the 24.2 GWh in March, according to the data from China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance (CABIA)

The imminent production of commercial-scale battery-grade lithium hydroxide in the US by American Battery Technology Co (ABTC) will help domestic cathode makers to improve their inventory management by shortening lead times, according to the company’s top executive.

Germany-based Volkswagen Group’s battery company PowerCo and California-based QuantumScape have entered into an agreement to industrialize QuantumScape’s solid-state lithium-metal battery technology, the companies announced on Thursday July 11

Major Chinese lithium producers Ganfeng Lithium Group and Tianqi Lithium Corp have issued profit warnings on Tuesday July 9 due to the ongoing decline in lithium prices since early 2023

Fastmarkets has corrected the rationales for its MB-LI-0033 lithium hydroxide monohydrate LiOH.H2O 56.5% LiOH min, battery grade, spot price cif China, Japan & Korea and MB-LI-0029 lithium carbonate 99.5% Li2CO3 min, battery grade, spot prices cif China, Japan & Korea, which were published incorrectly on Tuesday July 9.

Price and supply were the major topics of conversation for market participants across the value chain attending Fastmarkets’ flagship Lithium Supply and Battery Raw Materials conference in Las Vegas on June 24-27