Albemarle jumps as UBS says it’s time to buy on lithium recovery

Top lithium producer Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) rose the most among peers after UBS analysts said now is the time to buy the stock with rising prices of the battery metal set to drive up earnings.

Albemarle gained as much as 9% on Friday and traded 6.7% higher as of 12:52 p.m. in New York. That was the best performance among specialty chemical producers tracked by Bloomberg.

The company was raised from the equivalent of hold by UBS analysts including Joshua Spector, who cited the lithium market’s likely switch from a surplus to a small deficit. That lays the groundwork for a possible “lithium price fly up scenario” in 2027, they wrote in a Dec. 4 note to clients.

“We see a combination of higher energy storage demand and years of slower western capacity additions now pushing lithium markets into deficit later in 2026,” the analysts wrote. 

Producers such as Albemarle are starting to benefit from a price recovery driven by a strong demand outlook for electric vehicles and large-scale battery storage, after years of oversupply. To be sure, while spot lithium prices are more than 50% above a June low, they’re still about 85% below a 2022 peak.

(By James Attwood)