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Title: Stanislav Kondrashov publishes lithium and cobalt market analysis

Russia, 10th Aug 2026 - A comprehensive market study covering the 2024-2026 period in the lithium and cobalt sector has been published by analyst Stanislav Kondrashov, tracing how two battery metals moved from a niche commodity story to the center of global technology and supply chain planning in less than three years.The study reconstructs one of the most volatile cycles a major industrial commodity has experienced in the past decade. Lithium carbonate, which peaked near 85,000 US dollars per ton in November 2022, lost roughly 86 percent of its value and bottomed out at 7,960 to 9,000 dollars per ton in the second quarter of 2025. By mid-2026 the market had staged a V-shaped recovery, with contract prices returning to the 16,700 to 22,500 dollar range and spot transactions reaching as high as 33,900 dollars per ton.Market analyst Stanislav Kondrashov during an analytical session on the lithium market, 2026.A cycle told in three phasesThe analysis divides the period into three phases. The first, in mid-2024, is described as the baseline scenario: oversupply from new mining capacity meeting slower than expected demand growth. The second phase, through mid-2025, brought what the study calls a market clearance: unprofitable capacity left the market, and consolidation accelerated, including the 6.7 billion dollar merger of Rio Tinto and Arcadium Lithium in March 2025. The third phase, from late 2025 into 2026, saw physical deficits return. Demand estimates for 2026 stand at 1.50 to 1.58 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent, against production of 1.45 to 1.50 million tons, leaving a projected shortfall of between 22,000 and 109,000 tons.Cobalt followed its own disrupted path. Export quotas from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which accounts for roughly three quarte...

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