Read Fastmarkets' monthly battery raw materials market update for August 2024, focusing on raw materials including lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and more

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)

Read on as Fastmarkets delves into a monthly market update, focusing on the dynamic and fast-evolving sector of battery raw materials

The suspension of South32’s manganese ore operations at Groote Eylandt Mining Co (GEMCO) in Australia has been changing demand patterns among manganese ore buyers in Asia and this will benefit other manganese ore miners, market participants said on Wednesday April 24

This development has led to a tightening market supply and bullish sentiment among traders, despite the immediate aftermath not showing a price hike

Producing battery-grade manganese sulfate in China is “logical” even for non-Chinese companies, due to the country’s strong demand and cost competitiveness, according to the chief executive officer of emerging Australia-headquartered producer Firebird Metals

Seaborne manganese ore prices to China rose further in the week to Friday March 8, following fresh deals in the higher and lower-grade markets

The ferro-alloys sector in China has shown a muted response to the country’s economic targets set for 2024 and laid out in the government work report released by Premier Minister Qiang Li on Tuesday March 5 in Beijing, industry sources have told Fastmarkets

The market for downstream ferro-alloys — including ferro-chrome, silicon-manganese, ferro-manganese, ferro-silicon and vanadium — should remain weak after the Lunar New Year due to oversupply, sources told Fastmarkets. But the market for alloy ores, such as chrome ore, manganese ore and tungsten concentrates, should remain with stronger fundamentals after the February 10-17 holiday, sources said. […]

The supply of battery-grade manganese sulfate will switch from oversupply to deficit by 2028 despite new capacity coming online, especially outside of China, according to Fastmarkets’ most recent forecast ahead of the European Battery Raw Materials Conference in Amsterdam on September 18-20