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price volatility hits contract pricing mechanisms","lithium-price-volatility-hits-contract-pricing-mechanisms","article/lithium-price-volatility-hits-contract-pricing-mechanisms",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":566,"content":576,"excerpt":694,"featured":51,"reporter":695,"_editable":699,"component":700,"seo_title":553,"categories":701,"visibility":704,"author_company":49,"featured_image":705,"seo_description":694,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":710,"formattedArticleDate":711},"e63ff0a0-9545-41a3-b944-9852dc0e4ad7","2023-11-16 00:00",[560,563],{"slug":561,"name":562},"benchmark-week-2023","Benchmark Week 2023",{"slug":564,"name":565},"lithium-prices","Lithium prices",[567],{"slug":568,"name":569,"content":570},"matthew-bird","Matthew Bird",{"job_title":571,"image":572,"bio":574,"linkedin":575},"Senior Editor - Supply Chains & Data Visualisation",{"filename":573},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/14738033ec/matthew-bird.jpeg","Matthew writes, edits and produces content for Benchmark Intelligence and Benchmark Source across the whole mine to grid supply chain. He also acts as a liaison to the press. He has a PhD in electrochemistry from the University of Nottingham.","https://www.linkedin.com/in/birdmatthew/",{"type":577,"content":578},"doc",[579,596,601,606,619,624,629,634,639,644,649,656,661,666,671,676,689],{"type":580,"attrs":581,"content":582},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[583,586,594],{"text":584,"type":585},"Lithium ","text",{"text":587,"type":585,"marks":588},"pricing",[589],{"type":590,"attrs":591},"link",{"href":592,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":593},"https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/price-assessments/lithium/portal/","url",{"text":595,"type":585}," mechanisms are changing, as many players are reassessing how contracting is done on the back of lithium spot price volatility, according to delegates at Benchmark Week.   ",{"type":580,"attrs":597,"content":598},{"textAlign":49},[599],{"text":600,"type":585},"Following a spot price rally that began in 2021, there was a move away from fixed pricing contracts, Daisy Jennings-Gray, a senior price analyst at Benchmark, said at the event. ",{"type":580,"attrs":602,"content":603},{"textAlign":49},[604],{"text":605,"type":585},"“What’s happening now is because the spot market has turned in another direction, suddenly, everyone is questioning the decisions that they made back in 2021,” she said. “What that means is no one’s honing in on one approach to how contracting is done. So there’s a lot of different prices being reported out there.”",{"type":580,"attrs":607,"content":608},{"textAlign":49},[609,611,617],{"text":610,"type":585},"Chinese lithium prices are down more than 70% this year, with spot demand currently remaining lacklustre against a backdrop of comfortable downstream inventories, according to the latest ",{"text":612,"type":585,"marks":613},"Benchmark’s Lithium Price Assessment",[614],{"type":590,"attrs":615},{"href":616,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":593},"https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/price-assessments/lithium/portal/?tab=table",{"text":618,"type":585},". ",{"type":580,"attrs":620,"content":621},{"textAlign":49},[622],{"text":623,"type":585},"During the panel discussion at the event, Joe Lowry, president of Global Lithium, also said there’s a discomfort with how the last contract pricing round was structured.",{"type":580,"attrs":625,"content":626},{"textAlign":49},[627],{"text":628,"type":585},"“This is an immature situation, and I don’t think we’ll have a real lithium pricing standard mechanism for contracts for a few years,” he said. ",{"type":580,"attrs":630,"content":631},{"textAlign":49},[632],{"text":633,"type":585},"Commenting on prices, Christian Barbier, Allkem’s chief sales and marketing officer, said the industry is still searching for the right pricing formula.",{"type":580,"attrs":635,"content":636},{"textAlign":49},[637],{"text":638,"type":585},"“Demand is strong, the problem is, it is such a revolution, that it is incredibly difficult to predict demand and it is incredibly difficult to predict supply because of the complexity of the projects,” he said. ",{"type":580,"attrs":640,"content":641},{"textAlign":49},[642],{"text":643,"type":585},"Anthony Tse, founder of Vertical Ventures and senior advisor to EMR Capital, said the high capital intensity of adding more lithium units in other parts of the world should also be considered.",{"type":580,"attrs":645,"content":646},{"textAlign":49},[647],{"text":648,"type":585},"“And that’s even before you start talking about the more macro inflationary environment and interest rates and the availability of labour,” he said. “Every single company will have their own challenges in terms of keeping budget, keeping schedule, and having capital needs that were in excess of what they originally planned.”",{"type":650,"attrs":651,"content":653},"heading",{"level":652,"textAlign":49},4,[654],{"text":655,"type":585},"Sustainable lithium prices",{"type":580,"attrs":657,"content":658},{"textAlign":49},[659],{"text":660,"type":585},"Another key topic in the discussions around lithium prices has been the possibility of a  “green premium.” Allkem’s Barbier said current prices don’t reflect ESG credentials, something that he believes should happen in the future. ",{"type":580,"attrs":662,"content":663},{"textAlign":49},[664],{"text":665,"type":585},"“I believe it is necessary and the EV promise that is given to consumers depends on creating a better future for the planet. This is what the EV buyers are buying – and that includes the ESG credentials of production all along the supply chain,” he said. ",{"type":580,"attrs":667,"content":668},{"textAlign":49},[669],{"text":670,"type":585},"For Lowry, president of Global Lithium, what is happening right now in terms of ESG credential is noise. ",{"type":580,"attrs":672,"content":673},{"textAlign":49},[674],{"text":675,"type":585},"“I think it’s going to matter, but sometimes when there’s a need for material, ESG criteria is still second fiddle to what happens in reality,” he said. ",{"type":580,"attrs":677,"content":678},{"textAlign":49},[679,681,687],{"text":680,"type":585},"Benchmark is launching a sustainable lithium ",{"text":682,"type":585,"marks":683},"price index",[684],{"type":590,"attrs":685},{"href":686,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":593},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/benchmark-to-launch-sustainable-lithium-carbonate-pricing",{"text":688,"type":585}," this month, which could encourage producers to be more transparent about their sustainability credentials.",{"type":580,"attrs":690,"content":691},{"textAlign":49},[692],{"text":693,"type":585},"“We categorise these industry leading producers in terms of sustainability based on publicly available indicators of how transparent these producers are being,” Jennings-Gray said.  “We can then essentially, categorise all the data that we collect first-hand from the market to form a price assessment that reflects material that originates from those key producers.”","Lithium pricing mechanisms are changing, as many players are reassessing how contracting is done on the back of lithium spot price volatility, according to delegates at Benchmark Week. Following a spot price rally that began in 2021, there was a move away from fixed pricing contracts, Daisy Jennings-Gray, a senior price analyst at Benchmark, […]",[696],{"slug":568,"name":569,"content":697},{"job_title":571,"image":698,"bio":574,"linkedin":575},{"filename":573},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"e63ff0a0-9545-41a3-b944-9852dc0e4ad7\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[702],{"slug":703,"name":8},"lithium","private",{"id":49,"alt":706,"name":706,"focus":706,"title":706,"source":706,"filename":707,"copyright":706,"fieldtype":708,"meta_data":709,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/d74639e663/bm-daisy-benchmark-week.jpg","asset",{"alt":706,"title":706,"source":706,"copyright":706},"Nov 16, 2023","16th November 2023",[],[],1792773907974]