The first shipment of lithium from Brazil, a rare metal needed to make batteries for electric vehicles, has arrived in China, Chinese media reported on Monday.
The first batch of 55,000 tons of lithium carbonate has arrived at the port of Quanzhou in southeast China’s Fujian province, Quanzhou Business News reported.
The financial newspaper stressed that given the shortage of lithium, Quanzhou Customs “immediately authorized” the refinement of the ore “to ensure that it can be put into production as soon as possible.”
“The opening of this international trade channel has created a solid foundation for the future flow of more raw materials, including lithium carbonate, to Quanzhou,” said a spokesman for a Chinese shipowner who was shipping ore from Brazil.
It was also the first shipment of lithium imported by China this year, arriving in Quanzhou on May 15 after another month on the road, said He Jiaqing, the Chinese port customs chief.
In February, the Brazilian newspaper Globo reported that the first shipment of Brazilian lithium carbonate, estimated at 15,000 tons, was due to leave Ilheus, Bahia state, in northeast Brazil, for China in April.
Lithium was mined by Sigma Lithium in the areas of Arazuai and Itinga, in the Jequitinhonya Valley region, one of the poorest regions of Brazil, located in the state of Minas Gerais in the southeast of the country.
Sigma intends to mine 766,000 tons of lithium per year in the region, which has the largest reserves of lithium minerals in Brazil.
Minerals such as lithium are considered essential to achieve the so-called “energy transition” from a global economy dependent on fossil fuels to less polluting production and consumption systems based on renewable sources.
Nearly six million electric vehicles were sold in China last year, more than all other countries in the world combined.
The size of the Chinese market has led to the rise of local brands including BYD, NIO or Xpeng, which now threaten the “status quo” of an industry dominated for decades by German, Japanese and American construction companies.
In 2014, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said that developing electric vehicles was the only way for China to become an “automobile powerhouse”.
The country then set a goal that electric vehicles should account for 20% of total sales by 2025. This figure was surpassed last year when one in four cars sold in China was electric.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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