Tong Guan Jin Yuan Qi Huo·2025-09-29 01:53Report Industry Investment Rating - Not provided in the document Core Views of the Report - Last week, the fundamentals of the lithium carbonate market improved marginally, and the market's gaming enthusiasm cooled down, resulting in no significant fluctuations in lithium prices. The supply of lithium carbonate reached a new high, but the inventory scale decreased. The demand for energy storage remained strong, and the high - frequency sales growth rate of the power terminal rebounded. However, the market was concerned about the direction of lithium mines on September 30th, and the trading volume of the main contract decreased, indicating that both long and short positions were withdrawing their bets on the direction of lithium mines on September 30th [4]. - In the later stage, the direction of lithium mines may be the only disturbing factor, and the price will fluctuate. This week, there are only two trading days for lithium carbonate, and without the influence of external markets, the market may wait for the final ruling of lithium mines in Jiangxi. The marginal variables of the fundamentals have limited influence, and the downstream pre - holiday stockpiling is mostly over. The trading in the spot market may gradually stagnate, and the core of the market gaming is still on the resource ruling. Therefore, the trend direction of lithium prices is not clear, and the market gaming has cooled down. The short - term view is that the price will remain volatile [4][15]. Summary by Directory Market Data - The prices of imported lithium raw ore (1.3% - 2.2%), imported lithium concentrate (5.5% - 6%), and domestic lithium concentrate (5.5% - 6%) remained unchanged from September 19th to September 26th, 2025. The spot price of battery - grade lithium carbonate decreased by 1.46% to 7.29 million yuan/ton, and the industrial - grade lithium carbonate spot price dropped to 0, a decrease of 100%. The price of the lithium carbonate main contract decreased by 1.46% to 7.27 million yuan/ton. The prices of battery - grade lithium hydroxide (coarse and fine particles) increased slightly. The total lithium carbonate inventory increased by 0.10% to 130,581 tons. The price of cobalt acid lithium increased by 6.85%, and the prices of ternary materials also increased slightly [6]. Market Analysis and Outlook Last Week's Market Analysis - Regulatory and Delivery: As of September 26, 2025, the total warehouse receipt scale of the Guangzhou Futures Exchange was 40,329 tons, and the latest matching transaction price was 74,700 yuan/ton. The position scale of the main contract 2511 was 248,600 lots [8]. - Supply Side: As of September 26, the weekly output of lithium carbonate was 21,469 tons, an increase of 344 tons from the previous period. New production capacities were put into operation, such as the lithium extraction project from Zabuye Salt Lake of Tibet Mining with a designed annual capacity of about 12,000 tons, and Tianqi Lithium's 30,000 - ton lithium salt project in Zhangjiagang [8]. - Lithium Salt Import: In August, the import volume of lithium carbonate was 21,847 tons, a month - on - month increase of 58% and a year - on - year increase of 25%. The import from Chile was about 15,608 tons, a month - on - month increase of 82%, accounting for about 71%. The import from Argentina was 4,253 tons, a month - on - month increase of 8%, accounting for about 19%. The average import price decreased by about 14% [9]. - Lithium Ore Import: In August, the total import of lithium ore was about 619,200 tons, a month - on - month decrease of 17.51%. The import from Australia decreased by 50.5% to 212,000 tons, the import from Zimbabwe increased by 84% to 118,000 tons, and the import from Nigeria decreased by 9.6% to 105,000 tons. The imports from Mali and Brazil increased significantly [10][11]. - Demand: - Downstream Cathode Materials: As of September 26, the output of lithium iron phosphate was about 78,166 tons, with an operating rate of 68.79%, a decrease of 0.05 percentage points from the previous period, and the inventory decreased by 96 tons. The output of ternary materials was about 18,070 tons, with an operating rate of 47.28%, an increase of 0.28 percentage points from the previous period, and the inventory increased by 60 tons. The prices of both lithium iron phosphate and ternary materials increased slightly, but the market trading became colder, and the downstream pre - holiday stockpiling was mostly over [12]. - New Energy Vehicles: From September 1st to 21st, the retail sales of the domestic new - energy passenger vehicle market were 697,000 units, a year - on - year increase of 10% and a month - on - month increase of 11%. The retail penetration rate was 58.5%, and the cumulative retail sales this year were 8.267 million units, a year - on - year increase of 24%. Overseas, Trump announced a 15% tariff on EU - imported cars and auto parts. In China, the high - frequency sales growth rate continued to pick up, but there were still concerns about the terminal consumption market [13]. - Inventory: As of September 26, the total lithium carbonate inventory was 130,581 tons, an increase of about 135 tons from the previous period. The factory inventory increased by about 375 tons, the market inventory decreased by about 1,085 tons, and the exchange inventory increased by 845 lots [14]. This Week's Outlook - The direction of lithium mines may be the only disturbing factor, and the price will fluctuate. With only two trading days this week and no influence from external markets, the market may wait for the final ruling of lithium mines in Jiangxi. The marginal variables of the fundamentals have limited influence, and the downstream pre - holiday stockpiling is mostly over. The trading in the spot market may gradually stagnate, and the core of the market gaming is still on the resource ruling. Therefore, the trend direction of lithium prices is not clear, and the short - term view is that the price will remain volatile [15]. Industry News - Tianqi Lithium's 30,000 - ton battery - grade lithium hydroxide project was officially completed and put into operation on September 25th in Zhangjiagang [16]. - Tibet Mining's battery - grade lithium carbonate project in Zabuye Salt Lake was officially put into production. It is the world's first large - scale salt - lake lithium extraction industrial device using a combination of membrane separation and MVR evaporation crystallization technology [16]. - The first - phase lithium carbonate project of Luopu Xihai New Energy Materials Co., Ltd. was put into operation on September 20th, with an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons of lithium concentrate processing and 30,000 tons of battery - grade lithium carbonate [16]. Relevant Charts - The document provides multiple charts showing the price trends, production, and import volume of lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, lithium iron phosphate, ternary materials, and the production of new - energy vehicle batteries from 2022 to 2025 [18][20][22]