Lithium shares are on a roll after investment bank Macquarie (ASX: MQG) joined peers in predicting a further increase in prices for the key battery metal driven by increasing demand from the electric vehicles (EVs) sector, which is expected to push the market into undersupply.
Analysts at the bank are now forecasting prices to rise by between 30% and 100% over the next four years.
“Our bullish EV demand outlook sees the lithium market move to deficit in 2022 with material shortages emerging from 2025,” Macquarie said in the report.
That scenario would push spodumene prices to above $720 a tonne, the bank said. Of the two main processed forms of the metal, lithium carbonate, is tipped to remain above its “incentive” price of $13,000 per tonne, while lithium hydroxide is expected to sit comfortably above $16,000 a tonne.
Chinese spot lithium prices started to recover in late 2020, with the recovery accelerating over the first three months of 2021.
For the rest of this article: https://www.mining.com/macquarie-joins-peers-on-bullish-lithium-prices-outlook/