SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts launches daily European lithium spot price assessments

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, has launched daily spot price assessments for European lithium carbonate and hydroxide, effective Oct. 16, 2023.

The new CIF Europe assessments complement Platts' established suite of battery metals assessments in Asia and follow the successful addition of first-of-kind daily assessments for European black mass in April 2023.

The launch responds to growing demand from market participants for increased pricing information on battery-grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide delivered into Europe as the battery supply chain further develops in the region.

The European continent will be largely reliant on imports of battery-grade lithium salts to feed planned domestic battery cathode production capacity, despite recent policy moves to foster greater supply self-reliance. Domestic EU supply is forecast to increase to just over 20,000 mt on a lithium carbonate equivalent basis by 2027, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. This is not nearly sufficient to feed the expected growth in battery-grade lithium demand in Europe, with European lithium demand in passenger plug-in EVs forecast to grow to over 200,000 mt on a LCE basis by 2024, and up to around 367,000 mt by 2027.

Following extensive market research, the new assessment specifications are as follows:

Platts European lithium assessments consider market information reported to Platts and published throughout the day, including firm bids and offers, transactions and indications, as well as any other data deemed relevant to the assessment process.

The assessments reflect standard battery grade quality. Indications for other qualities are considered and normalized to Platts base standard specification, subject to prevailing market differentials.

The daily assessments are timestamped to 4:30 pm London time.

Full description of the Platts assessments methodology can be found here. [/content/dam/spglobal/ci/en/documents/platts/en/our-methodology/methodology-specifications/Global_NonFerrous.pdf]

The assessments are published on Platts Nonferrous Metals Alert pages, Platts Metals Daily, Platts Connect, Platts Market Center, and in the Platts price database under the symbols listed above. The assessments are included on pages MTL8888 and PMA8888 alongside Platts full suite of battery metals assessments.

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