Due to the exponential growth in lithium demand For rechargeable batteries, companies are now "fighting" for supplies of this material.
Global sales of lithium salt are only about $ 1.000 billion in one year. But this element is a vital component of the batteries that power cars, smartphones, laptops and many other products. With the demand for high-energy-density storage for electric cars that will be cleaner and greener, Goldman Sachs has named lithium as the new gasoline.
SQM is the Chile's largest lithium producer and it is part of those companies that fight to secure lithium supplies for the world's largest battery producers, such as car manufacturers.
The price of pure lithium carbonate imported to China has doubled in the last two months from 2015 to $ 13.000 a ton. The high growth reflects concerns about the future of this material in a market as important as China. It is China itself that obtains much of the lithium it needs from Australia, an alternative to the large producer that is Chile.
One of the problems is that, although Earth has large amounts of lithium, extracting it can be expensive, apart from being time consuming, so higher prices would not stimulate extraction to supply demand.
La current demand is very high with certain lithium-ion battery manufacturers such as Samsung and LG in South Korea, Panasonic and Sony in Japan, and ATL in Hong Kong. China is another that is coming together as a battery maker.
Nor should we forget about Tesla Motors that is preparing this year the start of production in its «Gigafactoria» in Nevada, it expects to have enough supply for the lithium-ion batteries for 500.000 cars per year for the next five. We already discussed not long ago supply problems they were having. And, it is Tesla's own JB Straubel who claims that there is so much hype right now for lithium that it is becoming a magical element.