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Events

Albemarle Aims to Build Trust, Transparency with Lithium Bidding Events

Sept. 18, 2024

When the market price of any item – a home, a new car, a bar of gold – fluctuates, it can be difficult at any given time to know its fair price. That’s true of lithium, too. Albemarle is actively contributing to the progress of price discovery and maturity in the evolving market by conducting lithium bidding events.

Prices are the bedrock of market decision-making. By highlighting spot pricing data, Albemarle aims to help all market participants make informed decisions and believes this can lead to a more balanced supply and demand dynamic over time.

“The historical reliance on long-term contracts in lithium has posed challenges for the development of robust benchmark prices that accurately reflect market dynamics,” Eric Norris, Albemarle’s president of energy storage, told an audience at the Fastmarkets Lithium Supply and Battery Raw Materials Conference in Las Vegas recently.

“Pricing must be transparent, and accurately reflect production and processing costs, among other variables.”

Lithium Bidding Events Draw Interest

Albemarle has held more than 20 lithium bidding events for chemical-grade spodumene and battery-grade lithium carbonate since March.

These private bidding events empower market participants to determine fair value by submitting their fair price offering through this new online marketplace.  

These events also allow Albemarle to learn more about consumer preferences for different product and producer features, which can be more clearly reflected in price. 

The events are currently held using an online platform provided through Metalshub. All bidders are notified of the winning bidding price. Out of respect to the bidding event participants, Albemarle is not publicly disclosing the identity of the winning bidder.

Buyers have shown enthusiasm for the events, and the level of participation and competition has been encouraging.

We are taking this step to support advancement in the overall maturity of the lithium market, Norris says, with an emphasis on promoting price transparency and increasing trust in the indices.

While Albemarle expects most of its sales will continue to be on agreements with core strategic customers, bidding event price discovery is expected to help increase mutual trust in the indices underpinning these contracts.

“We believe bidding events are a stepping stone to building more liquid, robust physical spot markets,” says Katie Pyfer, senior director of global pricing and value optimization. “Frequent, high-quality price indicators are a critical part of developing a sustainable supply chain.”

For more information about our invitation-only bidding events, please contact [email protected]