When China suffers a short circuit, the rest of the world gets a shock. The nation makes most of the world’s electric vehicles. It controls supply chains for batteries, even though it lacks large domestic deposits of lithium-bearing minerals.
Slowing EV sales in China have hit battery demand. Spot prices for lithium carbonate there have dropped 64 per cent this year to $27,298 per tonne.
Despite the global abundance of lithium, soaring prices previously had reflected a supply pinch for the refined product used in EV batteries. Top producer Albemarle recently anticipated a fivefold growth in demand by 2030. An integrated miner and refiner, the US-listed group has some of the lowest operating costs globally.
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