In 2023, the supply of cobalt and nickel exceeded demand by 6.5% and 8%, and supply of lithium by over 10%, thereby bringing down critical mineral prices and battery costs. While low critical mineral prices help bring battery costs down, they also imply lower cash flows and narrower margins for mining companies.
Battery demand for lithium stood at around 140 kt in 2023, 85% of total lithium demand and up more than 30% compared to 2022; for cobalt, demand for batteries was up 15% at 150 kt, 70% of the total. To a lesser extent, battery demand growth contributes to increasing total demand for nickel, accounting for over 10% of total nickel demand.
IEA. Licence: CC BY 4.0 In 2022, lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) remained the dominant battery chemistry with a market share of 60%, followed by lithium iron phosphate (LFP) with a share of just under 30%, and nickel cobalt aluminium oxide (NCA) with a share of about 8%.
Battery demand for nickel also surged to nearly 370 kt, up almost 30% from 2022. Battery demand for nickel stood at almost 370 kt in 2023, up nearly 30% compared to 2022.
Get up-to-speed with our battery raw material prices, news, trends and forecasts. The price of lithium is falling, but some Western companies have recently announced more investments in the Lithium Triangle – a region of South America comprising parts of Argentina, Chile and Bolivia.
In 2022, about 60% of lithium, 30% of cobalt and 10% of nickel demand was for EV batteries. Just five years earlier, in 2017, these shares were around 15%, 10% and 2%, respectively.