US warns China is forcing West out of lithium production

Trade tensions continue to deepen between the West and China. During a press briefing on 7 October 2024, Jose Fernandez, US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, warned that Chinese lithium producers are flooding the global market and deliberately causing a “predatory” price drop to eliminate their rivals. As he explained, China is currently producing far more lithium “than the world needs today, by far.”