According to statistics divulged by TrendForce, the prices of the cells for Chinese electric vehicles dropped by 50% in December 2023 versus January 2023. However, their stabilization is foreseen by the second quarter of 2024, then growing with an estimated yearly rate of around 15-20%.
TrendForce has affirmed that a lower number of market orders and the suppliers’ need for stabilizing cash flows have led to low-price strategies, with a decrease in consumers’ demand in the last month of the year. The intense competition in the bidding process pushed centralized procurement prices below CNY 0.40, equivalent to 0.06 dollars/Wh, undercutting the manufacturing costs of some producers.
TrendForce surveys that in 2023 the sector of lithium-ion batteries registered a significant capacity release. However, owing to the final demand slowdown, the sector entered a cycle of offer excess, leading to a significant reduction of raw materials prices for lithium batteries. At the end of 2023, the price of lithium carbonate had fallen under 100,000 CNY/ton, resulting in a constant decrease in the costs of cells’ materials.