Lithium producers hit by first big downturn of electric vehicle era

Re:Lithium producers hit by first big downturn of electric v... by JaRail on Thursday November 14, 2019 @02:55PM (#21538764)

The headline makes no sense when they follow it up by saying

> Battery-grade lithium is used primarily in EV batteries, and many automakers have high purity standards. Much of the industry’s capacity to produce high-quality, battery-grade lithium is locked up until 2024

They're just putting two unrelated things in a headline to imply they're related. It's clickbait/FUD. If they're selling all the battery-grade lithium, why don't they tell us about why demand is down for low-grade lithium?

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Re:Lithium producers hit by first big downturn of electric v... by flat_white on Thursday November 14, 2019 @04:07PM (#21539426)

If you read the article properly, you will see that quote is attributed to a commodity analyst. The article is adding nuance to the story and canvassing a range of views.

It's not clickbait. The downturn in lithium prices recently has been significant and publicly traded companies have been sold off strongly (even high grade producers).

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Re:Lithium producers hit by first big downturn of electric v... by happosai on Friday November 15, 2019 @08:45AM (#21544670)

Downturn in low-quality lithium price. We don't know what the real price of high quality battery quality lithium is, as all battery quality supply is locked in long term confidential offtake agreements.

What we know, is lithium companies latest round of results was not great. Stock prices are spiralling. EV makers will find out without paying more to lithium suppliers, they won't get as much batteries as they wish.

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Re:Lithium producers hit by first big downturn of electric v... by dmix on Thursday November 14, 2019 @03:52PM (#21539263)

This is very much standard accounting practices, especially in mining and other limited resources.

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