On the early morning of April 3rd Beijing time, the United States announced a plan to impose equivalent tariffs, including a 34% increase in equivalent tariffs on China. Combined with two retaliatory tariffs of “10%+10%” implemented in February and March, the cumulative increase in tariffs on China is 54%, higher than market expectations. Although the tariff adjustment does not involve lithium carbonate, it is worth noting that it affects the terminal demand for lithium carbonate: the 25% automobile tariff imposed by the United States will increase the cost for Chinese new energy companies to enter the US market, and in the fields of power batteries and energy storage batteries, it may to some extent suppress the demand for lithium carbonate.
Affected by macro news, domestic lithium carbonate has continued to decline recently. As of April 7th, according to the commodity market analysis system of Business Society, domestic battery grade lithium carbonate is 72973 yuan/ton, a decrease of 1.25% from the previous trading day’s 73900 yuan/ton, and domestic industrial grade lithium carbonate is 71966 yuan/ton, a decrease of 0.32% from the previous trading day’s 72200 yuan/ton.
Fundamentally speaking, the situation of oversupply of lithium carbonate in China has not changed, and inventory is still accumulating. Traders are actively reducing inventory, further exacerbating the market supply-demand imbalance, and the overall supply capacity continues to be surplus. Under the dual effects of high inventory pressure and pessimistic market expectations, it is expected that lithium carbonate prices will continue to bottom out in the short term, and specific changes in market supply and demand need to be monitored.