Chilean Lithium Prices Decline Even as Demand Soars

  • Chile export price fell 0.9% in first quarter from a year ago
  • Export prices and volumes rose in March compared to February
Flamingos feed in the Tebenquiche lagoon at the Atacama salt-flat in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

Photographer: Laura Millan Lombrana/Bloomberg

Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Lithium export prices from the world’s second-largest producing nation fell in the first quarter, marking the first decline for the mineral that is key to electric vehicle batteries since at least 2014.

Chile exported lithium carbonate at an average price of $12,183 per ton, 0.9 percent down from the same period a year earlier, according to data from Chilean customs compiled by Bloomberg. Prices have soared 167 percent in the past five years.