The electric vehicle industry, which is unanimously optimistic, makes lithium batteries hot, and then drives the price of lithium ore to soar. It is estimated that the lithium consumed in the battery of a Tesla Model S-type electric vehicle is the demand for lithium in 10,000 smartphone batteries. This, in turn, has doubled the price of lithium.
While the outside world is generally optimistic about the lithium ore market, the internationally renowned financial services company Morgan Stanley has sung the opposite.
A few days ago, Morgan Stanley said in a report that the world's largest lithium supplier is recently planning a new lithium ore project in Chile, the world's largest lithium resource country, which will increase global aluminum production at a rate of 500,000 tons per year. Even if at present, the demand for lithium by electric vehicles is extremely large, but if the growth rate of lithium production is as claimed in the report, that is, the growth rate of lithium production is 16% per year, more than 4% of the demand in the same period, the current supply of the global lithium market will also be in contact this year, after next year, the lithium market will be oversupplied, and the excess output is expected to reach 190,000 tons.
Morgan Stanley's remarks naturally drew back from numerous industry analysts. The reason for the strong response is that Morgan Stanley mistakenly ignored the high demand and the complexity of the process of mining and processing lithium ore.
Australia's pilbara minerals mining company, a well-known lithium miner, has recently signed supply contracts with battery car manufacturers in China and South Korea, and it is known that Morgan Stanley's remarks can not sit still. Its president Ken Brinsden said: "We understand the needs of the Asian market and I am very firm in my belief that Morgan Stanley is seriously encouraging the growth rate of the market demand side! Needless to say, demand from the ev industry has driven lithium prices to double over the past two years and spurred a slew of new mine projects as well as expansion projects at existing mines.
Andrew Miller, an analyst at the British consulting agency, also responded that the "oversupply" theory is that a certain institution has failed to consider the complexity of the production of lithium batteries, and there are currently very few companies with the capacity and capacity to produce lithium compounds needed for batteries, and he believes that lithium mines are unlikely to have an oversupply in the next few years.
Morgan Stanley's remarks have not had an excessive impact on lithium resource countries, and Chile and China are still the two countries with the largest lithium deposits. It is worth mentioning that there is a small African country with only 23,000 tons of lithium reserves – only 0.2% of the world's reserves, but has become the world's fifth largest producer of lithium ore, that is, Zimbabwe.
The improvement of the status of lithium mines has brought self-confidence to this international community, and of course they have such capabilities. Recently, Zimbabwe's Minister of Mines issued a harsh statement: "We believe that when all known lithium resources are developed, Zimbabwe is expected to meet 20% of the world's lithium demand."
It is worth mentioning that Zimbabwe is keen to attract capital investment with its mining resources. After the ouster of former President Robert Mugabe, who ruled for nearly four decades last year, Zimbabwe is using lithium as a major selling point to attract investors. In the case of the global lithium mine situation continues to rise, a large wave of local new mine projects and existing lithium mine projects are "waiting for opportunities".