CITIC Securities: Supply disruptions continue, pre-holiday stockpiling supports lithium prices.

Citic Securities Research Report indicates that since Zimbabwe completely banned the export of lithium ore at the end of February, there have been no shipments of lithium concentrate. Even though export quotas have been allocated, shipments will still take time, with transit times possibly as long as 3 months. Assuming shipments resume by the end of April, it will take a long time to transport the ore back to domestic lithium salt plants, which will continue to affect domestic raw material supply in May and June, and may even impact production in July. Recently, four mica lithium mines in Jiangxi have simultaneously released reports evaluating the benefits of mining rights transfers. Following this, the process of obtaining permits will enter the shutdown and environmental assessment phase, exacerbating concerns about tight supply in the second and third quarters. At the same time, the entire industry chain is currently in a relatively low inventory situation, with downstream production expectations increasing month by month. High growth in energy storage and new energy vehicle exports, weak supply expectations, strong consumption realities, and a low industry inventory situation all provide upward support for prices.