en.Wedoany.com Reported - Ganfeng Lithium and Tianqi Lithium simultaneously released their investor relations activity record sheets on May 20, detailing their current business progress and outlook on the future lithium market supply-demand landscape. Ganfeng Lithium pointed out that the current lithium market sees coexisting supply disruptions and robust demand, with strong lithium prices supported by clear fundamentals and a tight supply-demand balance. Since 2026, resource releases on the supply side have been tight, with new supply mainly coming from the ramp-up of existing capacity and the resumption of halted projects, while new lithium resource projects are limited. On the demand side, the two major sectors of power batteries and energy storage are performing strongly. The overseas new energy vehicle market is showing prominent growth, the domestic power battery market is experiencing strong demand due to the rapid increase in battery capacity per vehicle, and bidding data and downstream prosperity in the energy storage sector also indicate robust demand.
Looking ahead to 2027, Ganfeng Lithium believes supply releases still face uncertainty, primarily because low lithium prices over the past 2 to 3 years led to insufficient industry capital expenditure. Projects that can commence production are mostly those where construction investment was made earlier, and the pace of release is restrained. On the demand side, geopolitical factors and relatively high energy prices have elevated the importance of energy independence and security, providing a positive stimulus to the new energy industry, thereby forming medium-to-long-term support for lithium demand. Overall, the global lithium resource supply and demand is expected to remain in a tight balance in 2027, with strong demand providing effective support for lithium prices.
When asked about the industry outlook, Tianqi Lithium stated that it maintains its previous judgment that the global lithium industry's supply-demand relationship is generally expected to be in a tight balance in 2026. Current industry operations and supply chain tracking indicate that the 2026 supply-demand landscape is still undergoing dynamic adjustment, characterized by "continuously growing demand and periodic supply disruptions." Tianqi Lithium believes that against the backdrop of rising oil price centers and the ongoing energy structure transition, the electrification trend in major global markets is expected to continue. Sustained release of energy storage demand, coupled with policy support and improving project economics, is driving relatively fast growth in energy storage battery shipments, forming significant incremental support for lithium resource demand. Meanwhile, in the midstream of the industrial chain, surveys by multiple market institutions show that several cathode material manufacturers will expand capacity in 2026, with downstream material enterprises' production scheduling and capacity planning releasing positive signals. Tianqi Lithium emphasized that a healthy and reasonable price level should accommodate reasonable profit margins across all segments of the industrial chain, which is conducive to the long-term stable development of the industry.
Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) also mentioned its outlook on the lithium market at the 2026 (11th) New Energy Industry Expo hosted in April. According to SMM analysis, the global lithium market was in oversupply from 2023 to 2025, with marginal growth rates in the power and energy storage markets slowing down. The concentrated release of lithium resources led to a shift to oversupply, dragging lithium prices down continuously. Looking ahead to 2026-2030, as the battery capacity per electric vehicle continues to increase, demand in sectors like commercial vehicles and heavy trucks gradually releases, and the domestic and overseas energy storage markets explode, the long development cycle for lithium resources is expected to lead to a continuously tightening supply-demand balance, with the price floor support significantly moving upward.
At the operational level, Wang Xiaoshen, Vice Chairman and President of Ganfeng Lithium, introduced that lithium salt prices in 2025 were characterized by "initial decline followed by recovery, with quarterly differentiation." Through strategic upgrades, organizational restructuring, and flexible business strategies, the company stabilized its core business fundamentals. In 2025, the company completed the mining rights transfer for the Goulamina project in Mali, producing 336,600 tons of lithium spodumene concentrate; the Mariana lithium salt lake project successfully commenced production and gradually released capacity; and Phase I of the Cauchari-Olaroz project progressed smoothly with continuously declining costs. In the energy storage business, the company extended into areas such as commercial & industrial storage and independent shared storage, incubating energy storage companies like "E-Store" and "H-Store," and participated in dozens of large-scale energy storage power station projects. Among these, the largest single grid-forming energy storage station in China—the Inner Mongolia Arun Banner Grid-forming Energy Storage Station—has been successfully commissioned, and cooperation was established with Électricité de France (EDF).
Regarding solid-state batteries, Ganfeng Lithium's commercialization process accelerated in 2025. High-energy-density, high-power batteries for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft were deployed on the Aerofugia AE200-100 model, completing the first phase of manned test flights and achieving a first-mover advantage in the low-altitude economy sector. The company's high-performance cell battery systems cover a capacity range from 10kWh to 1000kWh, suitable for wide application in commercial vehicle models such as heavy trucks, mining trucks, light trucks, light buses, public buses, and sanitation vehicles. In battery recycling, the company established standardized recycling stations in 8 major cities, and the "2+8" project commenced production, achieving efficient full-component recovery of used lithium iron phosphate batteries. In 2025, the company purchased 272 million kWh of green electricity, equivalent to reducing approximately 144,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The company is currently advancing two solid-state battery technology routes simultaneously: silicon-based anodes and lithium metal anodes. The second-generation solid-liquid hybrid battery uses metallic lithium as the anode; the 400Wh/kg battery cycle life has exceeded 1,100 cycles and completed engineering verification. The world's first 500Wh/kg-class 10Ah product has achieved small-batch production. The silicon-based anode route is also progressing simultaneously, achieving a gradient layout of products from 320 to 480Wh/kg, among which the 320Wh/kg cell cycle life has exceeded 1,000 cycles.
In response to questions regarding lithium concentrate and lithium salt inventory, Tianqi Lithium stated that as of now, the company's lithium concentrate and lithium salt inventories are at reasonable levels. The lithium concentrate inventory is sufficient to meet the daily production needs of its own lithium salt processing plants, and the cost of chemical-grade lithium concentrate used at various lithium chemical product production bases is basically close to the latest purchase price.
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