Lithium’s Pricing rises 22% this year and prospects for the future are promising
The time that this market is facing contrasts with the lack of projects in Chile: while the government seems not wanting to repeat the tender made last year, the parallel processing carrying by Codelco neither show news
The upward trend of lithium prices in international markets does not stop.
According to the latest quarterly report from the leading producer of lithium in Chile and the world, SQM the price of this product globally has climbed 22% in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, situation coming to ratify the strength of this market internationally.
This situation is explained by a significant increase in demand, which in turn is due to the increase in the manufacture of batteries for electronic products.
“Demand in the lithium market has been strong in the last five years, almost double since 2009. This has been driven by applications related to energy storage. SQM has been a key player in this hike, and its annual growth rate of lithium revenues has been above 23% since 2009, “the company said in an official report. It is added that the demand growth continues to be led by the battery market, along with a significant increase in its use in products related to glass and fat (products).
Regarding prices, SQM reported that lithium average values and their derivatives have continued their upward trend and “were approximately 22% higher during the third quarter of 2013 that the average prices recorded during the same period of 2012”.-
Projections
For the company run by Julio Ponce and the Canadian Company PCS, market conditions are very encouraging, thanks to the technological boom worldwide and the dependence of the lithium industry.
“We believe the lithium market has conditions to grow in the short and long term through the creation of new technologies related to energy storage, and we hope market growth between 5% and 10% in 2013 compared to 2012, “added SQM.
While sales volume of Chilean mining for the period January-September 2013 decreased 20% over the same period of 2012, sales volume during the third quarter was approximately 47% higher than sales volume registered in the second quarter of this year. In this connection the question arises: what are the Chilean mining doing to take advantage of this price boom ? The answer is troubling: little or nothing.
Last year, the government tendered a block of lithium production to third parties, which aimed to encourage the exploitation of this product. However, flaws in the procedure forced to set foot back in the process, which turn out to cost the deputy mining, Paul Wagner. However, after several months the government has not given its intention to take up this international tender and unlikely to be re-done considering that the current mandate ends in just over three months.
Codelco, in parallel, decided to move on in a similar process, seeking a partner to jointly exploit the reserves that the state company has in the Salar de Pedernales. However, despite the resolution of this process was expected in the first half, still no news and signals that have some private who have been interested in participating, for now the issue is frozen. PULSO asked corporate executives on this process, with no response.
Source: Pulso
