Lithium miners warn on plunging profits after price freefall
Two of China’s biggest lithium companies became the latest miners to issue stark warnings over the health of the battery metal industry, telling investors to prepare for tumbling profits and asset writedowns.
A slump across battery materials has upended projects worldwide as gluts emerge, even as optimism about the outlook for electric vehicles persists. With prices in free fall, miners are imposing production cuts and seeking to rein in costs.
China’s Tianqi Lithium Corp. said Tuesday that it expected its full-year profit to fall as much as 73% from a year earlier and would now be between 6.6-billion yuan ($920-million) to 8.9-billion yuan.
Tianqi said earnings had been hit by the collapse in lithium prices and it also expected lower income from its investment in Chile’s SQM. The company is also poised to take impairments on some of its assets.
It’s rival Ganfeng Lithium Group also expects a steep fall in profit, with full-year earnings set to slump between 70% and 80%.
The ultralight metal used in electric-vehicle batteries has had a bumpy ride in recent years. Prices on the Lithium Price Index have nosedived more than 80% from an early-2023 record, with the market whiplashed by fears of shortages to more recent warnings of massive near-term supply surpluses.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Showroom
The SAIMM started as a learned society in 1894 after the invention of the cyanide process that saved the South African gold mining industry of the...
VISIT SHOWROOM
SBS® Tanks is a leading provider of innovative water security solutions with offices in Southern Africa, East and West Africa, the USA and an...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
