SQM executive expects lithium carbonate prices around $15-$18/kg in 2026

Reuters | April 13, 2026 | 3:49 pm Battery Metals Markets Latin America Middle East Lithium

Codelco can do more if given a better partner for the Atacama salt flat

(Image courtesy of SQM.)

Chilean lithium miner SQM expects the price of lithium carbonate to hover in a range of around $15 to $18 a kilo in 2026, a senior executive of the company told Reuters on Monday in Santiago.

“From time to time you will find like $20 or something, probably you will find $12,” said Carlos Diaz, vice president of lithium at SQM. “But it’s not going to be $7 or $8 like it was last year; probably not $50 like it was three years ago,” Diaz told Reuters at the World Lithium Conference.

SQM is the second-largest supplier of lithium in the world.

Lithium prices have recovered from a recent slump and risen to more than two-year highs as concerns over oil supplies from the war-hit Middle East have spurred fresh interest in the metal used in batteries for electric vehicles.

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Supply is meanwhile tightening due to the closure of a key mine in China, an export ban in Zimbabwe, and dwindling lithium carbonate stocks. The growth in data centers on the back of the AI boom has also increased demand for battery energy storage systems that use lithium.

SQM is betting that lithium demand recovery could be faster than expected, said Diaz, citing the Iran war in particular as a factor.

“The war in Iran is always impacting the demand, and because of that we think more people now want to buy an electric vehicle and be less dependent on oil,” Diaz said.

SQM supplies 70% of its lithium to China, and the company said it continues to see demand from its main buyer.

(By Divya Rajagopal; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)