Frequent maintenance at lithium converters in July-August and weaker selling interest after prices broke lower have tightened spots availability. Downstream buyers, well-stocked from earlier, have been mostly purchasing for essential needs, though volumes picked up below RMB 140,000/tonne on Friday. LFP orders have remained strong, with August production ramp-up expected to stay on track. Industry inventories continued to draw down at an accelerating pace, while 14,000 lots of warehouse receipts were cancelled in a concentrated manner.
Note: Mysteel has expanded our lithium carbonate inventory sample library to 207 players across the industry chain, including converters (74 samples), traders (62 samples, including stocks held on behalf of others), and cathode manufacturers and end-users (72 samples), aiming to provide a panoramic view of China's lithium carbonate inventory trends.
