Chile is positioned as the main lithium exporter in Latin America, with projections for this year and 2025 of 275 thousand and 285 thousand tons, respectively.
In 2023, national production was “270,947 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent, which represents 4.3 % more compared to 2022 and 120.5 % compared to 2020.”
With these figures, the South American country maintains its position as the first lithium producer in the region in 2023, and ranks second worldwide behind Australia, “according to data from Cochilco in its 2024-2025 Projection for the lithium market.”
According to the local body, in 2022 lithium carbonate prices increased significantly, reaching US$70,000 per ton in Asia.
However, the following year this bullish streak was reversed, a trend that has extended to this year if we take into account that at the end of July the price of a ton of lithium carbonate was US$12,000, close to US$12,100 the ton of lithium hydroxide.
Regarding exports of the sector, last year they fell 4 % compared to the previous year (US$7,823 million). “Until May 2024, they accumulate some US$1,590 million, a drop of 65 % compared to the previous period, in line with the slowdown in the price of lithium in international markets.”
The data indicates that until May 2024, lithium shipments were equivalent to 3.8 % of the total exported, compared to the same period in 2023, when it reached 8.3 %.
M.Pino
Source: americaeconomia
(Reference image source: Roberto Sorin in Unsplash)
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