{"id":1160693,"date":"2020-01-19T12:44:56","date_gmt":"2020-01-19T18:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1011690"},"modified":"2020-01-19T12:44:56","modified_gmt":"2020-01-19T18:44:56","slug":"lithium-industry-in-a-waiting-game-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1160693","title":{"rendered":"Lithium industry in a waiting game \u2013 report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new report by Roskill states that the lithium industry is in a waiting game. Suppliers are limiting capacity utilisation and expansions to see if prices pick up as demand grows and inventories go down.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\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>Although the strategy is expected to provide significant opportunities, it&#8217;s not clear when it is going to be really effective.<\/p>\n<p>The set of tactics -Roskill\u2019s document states- comes in response to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/lithium-price-plunges-to-4-year-low\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"weakening prices (opens in a new tab)\">weakening prices<\/a> for key lithium products, which have been experiencing a downward trend since last year. In December 20\u200c19, for example, lithium carbonate spot prices fell to their lowest monthly average since February 20\u200c15 at less than $8,000 a tonne, whilst average longer-term contract prices also continued their decline. <\/p>\n<p>Similarly, hydroxide prices now average just over $10,000 a tonne and spodumene concentrate (6% lithium for hydroxide manufacture) fell by 3.5% last October to average $450\u2013$510 a tonne. Overall, this represents a 45% drop in the last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis pricing trend comes as a direct consequence of the supply of lithium feedstock from spodumene operations overshooting demand, which, when coupled with rapid expansions in mineral conversion capacity since 20\u200c17, has propagated downstream,\u201d the market analyst\u2019s report reads.<\/p>\n<p>According to Roskill, even though miners have been taking action to limit oversupply and support prices, with many of them reducing or suspending production voluntarily or as a result of lower pricing, most are going to have to learn to adjust to the new market.<\/p>\n<p>In the analyst\u2019s view, besides closing the taps, proactive actions such as focusing on product quality, guaranteeing offtake agreements and maximising short term profit margins, seem beneficial for those that wish to take advantage of the uptake in lithium-ion battery technologies in automotive and energy storage uses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As prices go down, miners are expecting that strategies to reduce oversupply eventually work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"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 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