{"id":6840,"date":"2024-03-07T05:25:38","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T05:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/economicherald.net\/?p=6840"},"modified":"2024-03-07T05:25:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T05:25:38","slug":"monsters-of-rock-spodumene-continues-rebound-as-goldman-continues-to-spook-battery-metals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/economicherald.net\/?p=6840","title":{"rendered":"Monsters of Rock: Spodumene continues rebound as Goldman continues to spook battery metals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lithium prices have continued to stage a recovery after a rise in Chinese lithium carbonate futures was followed by escalating spodumene spot sales.<\/p>\n<p>6% Li2O spodumene, the benchmark for the main product traded by WA\u2019s hard rock lithium miners, hit 2.5-year lows of US$850\/t in January leading to moves from producers to downsize supply plans.<\/p>\n<p>A number of announcements have seen product pulled from the market in the months ahead.<\/p>\n<p>The world\u2019s largest lithium mine, Greenbushes, will cut FY24 output by 100,000t, while<a href=\"https:\/\/stockhead.com.au\/company\/arcadium-lithium-ltm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Arcadium\u2019s (ASX:LTM)<\/a> Mt Cattlin will deliver 75,000t less in 2024 and <a href=\"https:\/\/stockhead.com.au\/company\/mineral-resources-min\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN)<\/a> will delay the switch on of the third 250,000tpa processing train at its Wodgina mine.<\/p>\n<p>There have also been reports of environmental crackdowns in China\u2019s lepidolite mining sector, believed to set cost support for the downstream lithium chemical industry.<\/p>\n<p>Fastmarkets, one of the price reporters most relied on by Western miners, says SC6 is now fetching US$975\/t, up US$125\/t in the past week and a bit.<\/p>\n<p>It comes after nickel, the other Aussie battery metal in price strife, recorded a surprise rebound across February, almost touching US$18,000\/t after sinking below US$16,000\/t during the previous month.<\/p>\n<p>The trigger for that run has been slowing approvals in Indonesia and stronger than expected demand from China\u2019s stainless steel producers, which saw Macquarie analysts led by nickel vet Jim Lennon forecast a slight 40,000t surplus in 2024, compared to a debilitating 239,000t surplus projected by the International Nickel Study Group in October.<\/p>\n<p>Are we back in battery metals business?<\/p>\n<p>Not so fast, say Goldman Sachs commodity specialists led by Nicholas Snowden.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Persona? Non grata<\/h2>\n<p>The lithium game\u2019s biggest antagonist in the minds of some investors, Goldman has regularly predicted oversupply and price slides to the dismay and bemusement of miners.<\/p>\n<p>Only \u2026 it\u2019s kind of been right.<\/p>\n<p>While positivity is returning to the space, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2024\/03\/05\/goldman-the-bear-market-for-battery-metals-prices-is-far-from-over.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GS says it\u2019s too early to call the end of the bear market.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wall Street\u2019s battery metals persona non grata says prices for cobalt, nickel and lithium carbonate still have 12%, 15% and 25% downside over the next 12 months.<\/p>\n<p>It predicts lithium carbonate will slip to US$10,000\/t, with nickel to tumble to US$15,000\/t.<\/p>\n<p>Lithium carbonate spot prices averaged US$13,200\/t yesterday according to Fastmarkets.<\/p>\n<p>Goldman\u2019s still bearish stance came despite its assessment that price declines had led to \u2018meaningful degree of supply rationing effects over the past quarter\u2019, still expecting large surpluses to transpire.<\/p>\n<p>While lithium carbonate production fell in China in February during the Spring Festival celebrations, Shanghai Metals Market analysts say it could rebound 38% in March and another 15% in April, expecting surpluses to persist through 2026 as global LCE production capacity lifts from 1.54Mt in 2023 to 2Mt-plus in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Ex-div BHP and Rio sink materials<\/h2>\n<p>Despite low steel stockpiles helping iron ore prices back above US$115\/t yesterday, <a href=\"https:\/\/stockhead.com.au\/company\/bhp-bhp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BHP (ASX:BHP) <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/stockhead.com.au\/company\/rio-tinto-rio\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO)<\/a> pulled an otherwise solid materials sector close to breakeven after going ex-div.<\/p>\n<p>BHP fell 1.11%, while Rio was down 2.44%.<\/p>\n<p>The big winners came in the gold space, where prices hit new records overnight due to comments from US Fed chair Jerome Powell on potential 2024 rate cuts, as well as battery metals, with lithium miner <a href=\"https:\/\/stockhead.com.au\/company\/mineral-resources-min\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MinRes (ASX:MIN)<\/a> and rare earths play <a href=\"https:\/\/stockhead.com.au\/company\/lynas-lyc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lynas (ASX:LYC)<\/a> the top performing resources large caps.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Monstars share prices today<\/h2>\n\n<p><span class=\"mce_SELRES_start\"><\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/stockhead.com.au\/resources\/monsters-of-rock-spodumene-continues-rebound-as-goldman-continues-to-spook-battery-metals\/\">Monsters of Rock: Spodumene continues rebound as Goldman continues to spook battery metals<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/stockhead.com.au\/\">Stockhead<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lithium prices have continued to stage a recovery after a rise in Chinese lithium carbonate futures was followed by escalating spodumene spot sales. 6% Li2O <a href=\"https:\/\/economicherald.net\/?p=6840\" class=\"read-more-link\">[more&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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