Risks Mounting for Battery Metal Markets as Prices Peak

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has triggered havoc in the nickel market and exacerbated existing tightness in the lithium and cobalt markets. This has further supported battery metals prices, which have been rallying since mid-2020. Battery metals cost — including lithium, cobalt and nickel — in lithium-iron-phosphate, or LFP, chemistries jumped nearly sixfold year over year in March on a dollars-per-kilowatt basis; and more than doubled for the nickel-manganese-cobalt, or NMC, chemistries over the same period when calculated with spot Chinese prices.

There are growing concerns that record battery metals prices could cause a seismic technical shift in traction battery chemistry, or derail the e-mobility transition entirely. In China, COVID-19-related lockdowns across the country, including Shanghai, have led to shutdowns at several passenger plug-in electric vehicle, or PEV, producers, disrupted auto parts manufacturing and slowed down flows of material to downstream users. Uncertainties over the lengths of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the lockdowns in China therefore represent risks to passenger PEV production and sales, supply chain flows and battery metal prices.

Join us as we unpack the implications of the myriad of factors affecting the lithium, nickel and cobalt markets.

• Impact of recent disruptions on battery metals supply chain and prices
• Rising battery metal costs and the outlook for passenger PEV sales and battery chemistry mix
• Will there be sufficient battery metals supply to meet demand?
• Lithium, nickel and cobalt market outlooks and price forecasts