Decision to discontinue lithium contract price assessments

The discontinuation will take a phased approach to take into account the needs of those market participants that still have in place physical contracts linked to any Fastmarkets-published lithium contract assessment. This means that lithium contract price assessments will continue to be published on their regular schedule until Wednesday September 25, the date of the last assessments.

Fastmarkets’ decision follows a six-months consultation started on October 23, 2023, and a previous extended period of preliminary discussions with a wide cross-section of market participants in the lithium industry. The feedback received alongside interrogation of existing data collected by Fastmarkets suggested that these prices no longer reflect the dynamics of the physical lithium market. The evolving lithium marketplace in recent years has resulted in long-term contract negotiations increasingly linked to spot price indexation. This evolution has resulted in an extended period of low liquidity in the data collection of the lithium contract prices.

The affected prices are:
MB-LI-0031 Lithium hydroxide monohydrate LiOH.H2O 56.5% LiOH min, battery grade, contract price cif China, Japan & Korea
Quality: Powder, accepted by buyer for use in battery applications and with the chemical composition LiOH 56.5% min; CO2 <0.35%; Ca 0.020% max; SO4 0.015% max; Cl- 0.005% max
Quantity: Min 20 tonnes
Location: CIF China, Japan & South Korea
Timing: Up to 1 year
Unit: USD/kg
Publication: Monthly, last Wednesday of the month between 3pm and 4pm London time

MB-LI-0027 Lithium carbonate 99.5% Li2CO3 min, battery grade, contract price cif China, Japan & Korea
Quality: Powder, accepted by buyer for use in battery applications and with the chemical composition: Li2CO3 99.5% min (Min. 99.2% Li2CO3 accepted if it can be normalized to 99.5%); Na 0.060% max; Ca 0.016% max; Mg 0.008% max; magnetic impurities 300ppb max
Quantity: Min 20 tonnes
Location: cif China, Japan & South Korea
Timing: Up to 1 year
Unit: USD/kg
Publication: Monthly, last Wednesday of the month between 3pm and 4pm London time

MB-LI-0030 Lithium hydroxide monohydrate LiOH.H2O 56.5% LiOH min, technical and industrial grades, contract price cif China, Japan & Korea
Quality: LiOH 56.5% min (qualified for use in technical and industrial applications). Powder
Quantity: Min 20 tonnes
Location: cif China, Japan & South Korea
Unit: USD/kg
Publication: Monthly, last Wednesday of the month, 3-4pm London time

MB-LI-0026 Lithium carbonate 99% Li2CO3 min, technical and industrial grades, contract price cif China, Japan & Korea
Quality: Min 99% Li2CO3 (qualified for use in technical and industrial applications). Powder
Quantity: Min 20 tonnes
Location: cif China, Japan & South Korea
Unit: USD/kg
Publication: Monthly, last Wednesday of month, 3-4pm London time

MB-LI-0024 Lithium hydroxide monohydrate LiOH.H2O 56.5% LiOH min, battery grade, contract price ddp Europe and US
Quality: Powder, accepted by buyer for use in battery applications and with the chemical composition LiOH 56.5% min; CO2 <0.35%; Ca 0.020% max; SO4 0.015% max; Cl- 0.005% max
Quantity: Min 20 tonnes
Location: ddp US & Europe
Timing: Up to 1 year
Unit: USD/kg
Publication: Monthly, last Wednesday of the month, 3-4pm London time

MB-LI-0022 Lithium carbonate 99.5% Li2CO3 min, battery grade, contract price ddp Europe and US
Quality: Powder, accepted by buyer for use in battery applications and with the chemical composition: Li2CO3 99.5% min (Min. 99.2% Li2CO3 accepted if it can be normalized to 99.5%); Na 0.060% max; Ca 0.016% max; Mg 0.008% max; magnetic impurities 300ppb max
Quantity: Min 20 tonnes
Location: ddp US & Europe
Unit: USD/kg
Publication: Monthly, last Wednesday of month, 3-4pm London time

MB-LI-0020 Lithium hydroxide monohydrate LiOH.H2O 56.5% LiOH min, technical and industrial grades, contract price ddp Europe and US
Quality: LiOH 56.5% min (for use in technical and industrial applications)
Quantity: Min 20 tonnes
Location: ddp Europe & US
Unit: USD/kg
Form: Powder
Publication: Monthly, last Wednesday of the month, 3-4pm London time

MB-LI-0018 Lithium carbonate 99% Li2CO3 min, technical and industrial grades, contract price ddp Europe and US
Quality: Min 99% Li2CO3 (qualified for use in technical and industrial applications). Powder
Quantity: Min 20 tonnes
Location: ddp US & Europe
Publication: Monthly, last Wednesday of month, 3-4pm London time

The historic data for the lithium contract assessments will remain available on the pricing section of the Fastmarkets website.

Fastmarkets will continue to publish spodumene contract price assessments and all other spot lithium and spodumene price assessments as usual.

Fastmarkets constantly reviews the specifications of its lithium prices and it has recently amended the specifications of some of its spot lithium and spodumene assessments. The recently announced changes followed consultations with market participants and observation of the evolution of the lithium-ion battery supply chain with more interest observed for regionalized prices and increased transparency requested for the upstream evolving spodumene market.

Fastmarkets recently amended the specifications of its existing price assessments for Europe/US lithium spot battery-grade and technical-grade lithium hydroxide and carbonate to remove the US footprint and to launch weekly price assessments for spot battery-grade and technical-grade lithium hydroxide and carbonate for the United States and Canada.

Fastmarkets has also recently decided to amend the frequency and publication time of MB-LI-0012 Spodumene min 6% Li2O, spot price, cif China, $/tonne. The amendments will change the frequency of the price from twice weekly to daily, and the publication time move from 3-4pm London time to 1pm London time from May 1.

If you have any comments on the discontinuation of the lithium contract prices please contact Zihao Li or Justin Yang by email at: pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading: “FAO: Zihao Li/Justin Yang re Lithium contract price discontinuation.”

Please indicate if comments are confidential. Fastmarkets will consider all comments received and will make comments not market as confidential available upon request.

To see all Fastmarkets pricing methodology and specification documents go to: https://www.fastmarkets.com/methodology