{"id":1131395,"date":"2019-08-07T18:08:56","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T23:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=998768"},"modified":"2019-08-07T18:08:56","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T23:08:56","slug":"lithium-and-cobalt-prices-to-remain-under-pressure-as-supply-overtakes-demand-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1131395","title":{"rendered":"Lithium and cobalt prices to remain under pressure as supply overtakes demand \u2013 report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Both cobalt and lithium prices have experienced a collapse, driven by a loosening of fundamentals as a number of new projects come online, <em>Fitch Solutions\u2019<\/em> latest Industry Trend analysis reports. <\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Fitch <\/em>believes prices are likely to remain under pressure over the coming quarters as new projects continue to come online, keeping both markets loose. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p> Cobalt prices rose over 300% in the period from 2016-2018, while South America lithium carbonate prices rallied over 170% during a similar time frame <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Cobalt and lithium have received signi\ufb01cant investor interest since 2015 due to their increasing use in lithium ion batteries that power the burgeoning electric vehicle (EV) industry. As a result, demand and prices for both metals have been on the rise in recent years. <\/p>\n<p>Cobalt prices rose over 300% in the period from 2016-2018, while South America lithium carbonate prices rallied over 170% during a similar time frame. However, rising prices have also spurred a flurry of investments into new cobalt and lithium projects that have significantly loosened both markets &#8211; causing prices to unwind since 2018, <em>Fitch <\/em>reports. <\/p>\n<p>The impact on cobalt has been particularly striking, with prices losing 72% of their value to trade at 2014 levels near 25,500\/tonne, from peaks of 95,250\/tonne in 2018, the report reads. This dramatic drop has been driven by a ramp-up in new cobalt projects, leading to more output than rising demand from Electric Vehicle (EV) manufacturers can cater for.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Fitch-graf-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-998776\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Fitch-graf-2.jpg 814w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Fitch-graf-2-300x143.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Fitch-graf-2-768x367.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 814px) 100vw, 814px\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>While not as accute as cobalt, the lithium price collapse also responds to a rising number of new projects coming online due to an expectation of higher EV-fuelled demand in the future, leading to an oversupply in the present.<\/p>\n<p><em>Fitch<\/em> analysts maintain South American countries will be the key drivers of a loosening lithium market balance as they attract significant investment into new projects over the coming years due to their vast reserves of the metal. Projects include expansion plans at Albemarle&#8217;s and SQM&#8217;s operations in Chile<\/p>\n<p>Over a longer 10-year time frame<em> Fitch<\/em> remains positive on both lithium and cobalt and expect prices to recover, as EV demand for both metals catches up to supply.<\/p>\n<p>Read the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fitchsolutions.com\/products\/sector-intelligence\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" full report here. (opens in a new tab)\"> full report here.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>But Fitch analysts remain positive on both lithium and cobalt and expect prices to recover, as EV demand for both metals catches up to supply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1016,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131395"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1131395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1131397,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1131395\/revisions\/1131397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1131395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1131395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1131395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}