Lithium prices to bounce after 2022 – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 28, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

Prices for lithium, one of the key ingredients for the batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs) and high tech devices, are expected to climb in two years, when shortages in the market caused by curtailed production and halted expansions start to emerge.

Car sales, EVs included, have plummeted this year as global economic growth projections have already been derailed amid the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on global markets.

In Western Europe alone, where EVs sales were supposed to soar this year, the acquisition of new cars fell by 90% in April.

But demand is set to pick up, says Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a battery supply chain researcher and price discovery company. And when that happens “the supply side won’t be able to react quickly enough,” Simon Moores, managing director at BMI, told Reuters.

The London-based company, which also tracks battery megafactory (>1Gwh capacity) construction around the globe, believes that when demand comes back, lithium prices would bounce after 2022.

For the rest of this article: https://www.mining.com/lithium-prices-to-jump-as-pandemic-hinders-expansions/