China's Tianyi to start up 2nd phase of lithium hydroxide plant in Q4 - exec

Summi (Group) Holdings

01/06/2021 12:55

June 1 (Reuters) - China's Yibin Tianyi Lithium Industry Co
will put the second phase of its lithium hydroxide plant in the
southwestern province of Sichuan into production in the fourth
quarter of this year, a company executive said on Tuesday.
    Chinese lithium producers are expanding rapidly after a
three-year downturn for the commodity used in electric vehicle
(EV) batteries came to an end in 2020. Lithium carbonate prices
in China  AM-995C-LTCB , the world's top EV market, are up
around 70% so far this year on resurgent demand.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2K22DL  
    Tianyi - whose founding shareholders include China's top
battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL)
 300750.SZ  - plans to start production from the 25,000 tonnes
per year second phase of its hydroxide project in Yibin in the
fourth quarter, sales director Wang Xi said.
    That will bring annual capacity to 45,000 tonnes following
the commissioning of the 20,000 tonnes first phase last year.
    "The future plan is to reach 100,000 tonnes of capacity by
2025," Wang said during a China-focused session of Benchmark
Mineral Intelligence's EV Fest.
    Prices for lithium hydroxide - favoured in high-nickel
content batteries - are currently lower than lithium carbonate
in China but the discount is narrowing amid an ongoing switch in
battery chemistry towards more nickel and Tianyi does not see
carbonate's premium remaining for long in China.
    "To be frank, the situation of hydroxide producers is really
good," Wang said. "All the major producers have high capacity
utilisation rates. All have full orders (and) inventories are
becoming smaller and smaller."
    Some of Tianyi's battery material clients will start mass
production in the second half of this year and downstream demand
is looking good for the rest of 2021 and 2022, Wang said.

 (Reporting by Tom Daly
Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
 ((tom.daly@thomsonreuters.com; +86 10 5669 2119;))