Raw Materials

China will strictly investigate and punish hoarding, price gouging and unfair competition in the upstream and downstream lithium battery industry to maintain market order, a government document said today.

Every RMB 100,000 increase in the price of lithium carbonate will have a 2 percentage point impact on Nio's gross margin, the company's CEO previously said.

China should launch a crackdown on the profiteering of some players and stop some companies from hoarding and speculating on raw materials, according to the chairman of Changan.

The electric vehicle maker will pay $7.7 million up front and up to $80 million more for a stake in an Argentine mining project in its tie-up with Greenwing Resources.

In the first half of this year there were industry sources saying that Nio was intensively researching lithium mines and that the company was particularly interested in salt lakes in South America, according to local media.

Nio, through its wholly owned subsidiary Blue Northstar Limited, has agreed to pay A$12 million to Greenwing in a strategic financing deal.

Lithium carbonate prices in China rose from RMB 270,000 per ton at the beginning of the year to about RMB 470,000 per ton at the end of the second quarter in the first half.

Lithium resources are sufficient and the Chinese NEV market will not be materially affected by lithium prices in the coming months, according to CPCA secretary-general.

Through several years of technological upgrades, the price of batteries has come down a lot. But the price of raw materials has risen, making years of hard work all in vain, the official said.

Tianqi Lithium attributed the big increase in its first-half results to the significant growth in sales volume and selling price of its lithium products.