{"id":1134919,"date":"2019-08-27T11:07:50","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T16:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1000347"},"modified":"2019-08-27T11:07:50","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T16:07:50","slug":"lithium-glut-ev-subsidy-cuts-take-toll-on-major-producers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1134919","title":{"rendered":"Lithium glut, EV subsidy cuts take toll on major producers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An ongoing avalanche of lithium supply, coming mostly from Australia, as well as cuts to China\u2019s electric-vehicles (EVs) subsidies have caused prices for the battery metal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/lithium-prices-to-remain-low-as-hype-has-met-reality-cru\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"fall more than 40% over the past year (opens in a new tab)\">fall more than 40% over the past year<\/a>, knocking profits for the largest producers and wiping out most of their share price gains since 2016.<\/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>Six new lithium mines have begun operations in Australia since 2017, while Chile \u2014 the world\u2019s No.2 producer \u2014 has opened the door to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globenewswire.com\/news-release\/2019\/08\/15\/1902428\/0\/en\/Wealth-Receives-Key-Document-from-Chilean-Environmental-Agency-Regarding-Work-at-the-Atacama-Project.html\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">foreign companies to explore for lithium<\/a> in the rich Atacama salt flat, in the country\u2019s north.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, Albemarle Corp<br \/>\n(NYSE: ALB), the world\u2019s No.1 lithium miner,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/albemarle-puts-the-break-on-growing-plans-amid-lithium-market-weakness\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">postponed plans to add about 125,000 tonnes<\/a>&nbsp;of<br \/>\nprocessing capacity&nbsp;due to oversupply.<\/p>\n<p>The company has also revised a&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/mineral-resources-signs-1-15b-lithium-deal-albemarle\/\" >deal to buy into Australia\u2019s Mineral Resources<\/a>\u2019 (ASX: MIN) Wodgina lithium mine and said it would delay building 75,000 tonnes of processing capacity at Kemerton, also in Australia.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Area-of-lithium-mining-between-1997-and-2017-.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1000349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Area-of-lithium-mining-between-1997-and-2017-.jpg 929w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Area-of-lithium-mining-between-1997-and-2017--300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Area-of-lithium-mining-between-1997-and-2017--768x551.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 929px) 100vw, 929px\" \/><figcaption><em>From 1997\u20132017, lithium mining operations in Chile have expanded from 20.54 km2 to 80.53 km2, quadrupling over the course of the past two decades (specially between 2009 and 2013).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In terms of shares prices, the company stock has lost more than 20% of its value so far this year.<\/p>\n<p>Chile\u2019s Chemical and Mining Society (SQM), the world\u2019s second largest lithium producer,&nbsp;said last week <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/worlds-no-2-lithium-miner-sqm-hit-by-weak-prices\/\">profits for the second quarter had almost halved<\/a>, to $70.2 million, from $133.9 million a year earlier mostly due to weak prices.<\/p>\n<p>SQM&#8217;s shares are down a staggering 40% since the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n<p>In China, Tianqi Lithium, the country\u2019s largest producer, said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/tianqi-lithiums-h1-net-profit-slumps-clinches-lg-chem-supply-deal\/\">profits in the first half of the year<\/a> were down 85.2% from a year earlier. The stock, in turn, has fallen 20% this year.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the weak market, the world\u2019s largest battery makers remain keen on securing future supplies of lithium to meet demand, which is expected to triple and reach a value of $100 billion by 2025. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/top-lithium-producers-shares-1024x451.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1000357\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/top-lithium-producers-shares-1024x451.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/top-lithium-producers-shares-300x132.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/top-lithium-producers-shares-768x338.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/top-lithium-producers-shares.jpg 1242w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prices for the battery metal have fallen by more than 40% over the past year, knocking top producers&#8217; profits and share price gains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"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":[1016,369,4],"tags":[43],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134919"}],"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\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1134919"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1135164,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134919\/revisions\/1135164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1134919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1134919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1134919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}