German Lithium Fluoride Prices Face Downturn as Consumer Demand Wanes

Hamburg, Germany: The Lithium Fluoride market in Germany has demonstrated a bearish trend over the past few weeks and the prices are descending week-on-week on the back of poor consumer demand. As the consumer market has shown reluctance to make fresh purchases of Lithium Fluoride in the face of dropping product costs, downstream procurement in the Energy Storage System (ESS) and lithium-ion battery production industries has fallen further down.

According to the sources, downstream users were pressing for larger discounts on 2024 long-term contracts due to the year's expected low lithium demand.

Spot Lithium Fluoride prices in Europe have continued to fall across the board over the last week, with sources noting slowing spot demand and gloomy sentiment for the near term due to continuous weakness in Asian markets.

Additionally, amid fluctuating upstream raw material prices, the manufacturing costs have been fluctuating. Price parity between lithium carbonate and hydroxide battery-grade compounds has been achieved in Europe and the United States, mirroring a pattern found in the more liquid Asian market.

As per a few market participants, there could be a probability that the consumers were very well-stocked whereas, they are primarily relying on long-term orders of Lithium Fluoride, and were refraining from entering the market in the present situation.

In recent weeks, due to a poor Lithium Fluoride market, downstream Lithium Hexafluorophosphate prices have suffered as manufacturing costs have continued to fall.

Spot Lithium Fluoride prices have continued to fall in Europe over the last week, owing to the usual slowdown in spot demand, according to sources. However, the Lithium Fluoride prices were presumed to rebound post the third quarter in the European market, however, the demand declined further as the Lithium Fluoride prices have not recovered.

EV sales in Europe, on the other hand, are expanding, owing to the availability of more models than ever before. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), electric vehicles accounted for almost one out of every five new automobiles sold in the European Union in August, with zero-emission variants more than doubling in sales.

According to the ChemAnalyst database, the prices of the Lithium Fluoride market in the German market are anticipated to observe a stable trend in the last quarter of 2023 as slight improvement in the demand outlook is foreseen. However, in the latter half of this quarter, the prices could decrease further as the demand usually slows down amid the Christmas and New Year holidays in the European regions.