• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 1 min GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 7 hours How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 9 hours If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 4 days Oil Stocks, Market Direction, Bitcoin, Minerals, Gold, Silver - Technical Trading <--- Chris Vermeulen & Gareth Soloway weigh in
  • 6 days The European Union is exceptional in its political divide. Examples are apparent in Hungary, Slovakia, Sweden, Netherlands, Belarus, Ireland, etc.
  • 22 hours Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
  • 4 days "What’s In Store For Europe In 2023?" By the CIA (aka RFE/RL as a ruse to deceive readers)
Iron Ore Futures Take a Hit as Chinese Demand Wavers

Iron Ore Futures Take a Hit as Chinese Demand Wavers

Iron ore prices have suffered…

EU Member States Clash on Sanctioning Russian Aluminum

EU Member States Clash on Sanctioning Russian Aluminum

The EU considers banning Russian…

MINING.com

MINING.com

MINING.com is a web-based global mining publication focusing on news and commentary about mining and mineral exploration. The site is a one-stop-shop for mining industry…

More Info

Premium Content

Imploding Car Sales Weigh On Battery Metals Market

Car sales are tanking the world over: Europe is likely to experience a 20–25% drop in overall sales, the US is running at an annualized rate of little over 12m units – 5m below last year’s total, while the Chinese market went into reverse long before covid-19.

For automakers burnishing their green credentials there is a positive spin: Electric vehicle sales – or better still – penetration rates.  In Western Europe, according to Schmidt, a market researcher, for the first five months of 2020, 300,000 EVs (including plugin-hybrids) were sold, giving battery-powered cars a 8.3% penetration rate (in Norway it’s 69%). 

In the UK and Ireland, it’s just below 7% and in the US, 4.5%. Globally, according to IHS Markit, one in 25 cars sold in the year to end May were battery powered.  

But in absolute terms, the market for EVs remain in a deep slump. 

The MINING.COM EV Metal Index, which tracks the value of battery metals in newly sold EVs around the world has dropped to its lowest level since January 2018.

The decline is due to a combination of lower prices for the lithium, graphite, cobalt and nickel tracked by the index, but mostly due to the sharp fall in raw material deployed, which halved in April compared to the same month last year. 

Year to date at a shade under $500bn, the industry has shrunk by 22.6%, the definition of a bear market. That leaves the remaining months of 2020 with a lot of heavy lifting to do for the market to recover. 

Despite the sharp correction over the last two years, battery metal prices show little signs of improving. Coming close to the 2019 annual total of $2.1billion now seems a big ask.

By Mining.com

ADVERTISEMENT

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:


Download The Free Oilprice App Today

Back to homepage





Leave a comment
  • James Hilden-Minton on June 28 2020 said:
    Author reports on the decline in the value of battery minerals, but does not clarify how much of this is due to declining mineral prices vs declining volume of minerals demanded. Additionally battery makers mostly source mineral through multiyear contracts, so spot prices reflect a lot of short-term volatility that has little impact on the battery market. Generally, the price decline in nickel, cobalt and other minerals is positive for the continued long-term ramp up of the EV supply chain.

Leave a comment




EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News