The most-traded GFEX (Guangzhou Futures Exchange) lithium carbonate contract embarked on the downtrend in the past two weeks after briefly hitting a year-to-date high, with the settlement price falling 5.03% as of Friday May 22 against the previous Friday, data showed. The major causes for the pullback included a concentrated release of hidden lithium carbonate stocks when lithium prices were around Yuan 200,000/tonne that flooded the spot market, and a regulatory crackdown on invoicing among traders that strained their liquidity, leaving the spot market with limited capacity to absorb supply. Yet, the continued price cut encouraged the spot trading.