The battery materials industry has been under a lot of pressure over the last 12 months.
This has been driven by crashing lithium prices.
For example, the current spot price of lithium carbonate in China is US$13,547 a tonne and the latest spot price of lithium spodumene is US$1,210 a tonne.
As a comparison, lithium carbonate averaged US$63,232 a tonne in 2022 and US$32,694 a tonne in 2023. Whereas spodumene averaged US$4,368 a tonne in 2022 and US$3,712 a tonne in 2023.
Unfortunately for investors in the lithium space, Goldman Sachs believes that prices will remain subdued for the foreseeable future. This is likely to mean margins in the industry will be challenged for some time to come and only the lowest cost producers will be profitable.
In light of this, it will come as no surprise to learn that a number of ASX lithium stocks have been tipped to fall meaningfully from where they trade