Price hikes of lithium carbonate have prompted a Chinese battery maker to demand a government investigation into an alleged supply monopoly.
Fang Jianhua, CEO of lithium-ion battery maker Hefei Guoxuan Hi-Tech Power Company, says all companies should be asking why recent spikes had brought the price of lithium carbonate to such ‘unreasonable’ levels.
In 2008 the cost of lithium carbonate was $4,000 per tonne. This has increased by $10,000 a tonne to $14,000 today, with the rise mainly coming in the latter half of 2015, according to figures by investment firm Citigroup.
Lithium demand is expected to more than double between 2012 and 2017, with huge demand coming from Asia.
Korean behemoths Samsung and LG, Japanese electronics giants Panasonic and Sony and ATL of Hong Kong are still heading the field, but many companies in China are now ramping up production of lithium-ion batteries, as the market for electric buses grows along with private vehicles.
Sales of “new energy” vehicles in China almost tripled in the first ten months of 2015 compared with the same period in 2014, to 171,000, and while they remain less than 1% of total vehicle sales, demand is predicted to rise.
