Benchmark begins public consultation on moving China domestic lithium price assessments to twice monthly

London, UK (2 February 2021) – Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (“Benchmark”), the world’s leading independent provider of actionable price assessments, data and analysis for the lithium ion battery to electric vehicle supply chain, announced today that it has started a formal public consultation on changes to its Lithium Price Assessment Methodology.

Following feedback and discussion with a number of market participants, Benchmark proposes to increase the regularity of its Chinese domestic lithium prices to twice monthly.

This comes after a sustained period of increased liquidity and transaction volumes over recent months, which Benchmark believes will be a permanent feature in the Chinese market moving forward.

China is the most reactive market to changing supply and demand dynamics in lithium, and increasing the frequency of our price reporting within the framework of the Benchmark Lithium Price Assessment Methodology will provide a valuable new reference for industry participants.

The proposed changes would impact three grades currently collected by Benchmark:

Benchmark invites feedback from active market participants by latest Tuesday 2 March at 1700 GMT.

Please contact any Benchmark team member with feedback or email subscriptions@benchmarkminerals.com

Caspar Rawles, Head of Prices and Data Assessments at Benchmark said:

“As the lithium industry evolves in response to the energy storage revolution, Benchmark expands and evolves in step with the market as the world’s most trusted and used lithium price.

“Benchmark always managed the frequency of its price reporting in line with market conditions, which dictate how our expert analysts collect, assess and verify data points in accordance with our lithium specific, IOSCO compliant methodology.

“With growing liquidity in the Chinese domestic market for both lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, we believe transaction volume has increased significantly enough to allow for more frequent price reporting of Benchmark’s EXW China lithium grades.

“With a backdrop of rising demand from the lithium ion battery supply chain, Benchmark expects increasing price volatility in the coming years, with China the most susceptible to these fluctuations due to the shorter-term nature of its contract structures.

“This change will give Benchmark’s subscribers a more regular feed of data to assist the industry in ensuring they have the most accurate and reflective lithium pricing at hand for negotiations.

“We welcome feedback as Benchmark continues to add additional depth and detail to its price assessment process in response to the lithium industry’s evolution.”

Note for Editors and Customers

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is the world’s leading Price Reporting Agency for the lithium ion battery to electric vehicle supply chain.

Benchmark’s specialist focus allows its experts to create the most reflective battery raw material and chemical prices that are used to negotiate supply chain contracts.

Benchmark also assesses other forms of market data to strict methodologies including supply and demand of key components in the EV and energy storage supply chain.

These Price and Data Assessments include:

You can contact us at info@benchmarkminerals.com

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