Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS), one of Australia’s top lithium miners, slashed its forecast for shipments, further exacerbating tight supply for the key ingredient in electric-vehicle batteries.

The Perth-based company cited a raft of issues — from delays in commissioning and ramping up more processing capacity, to unplanned shutdowns and skilled worker shortages — in lowering its guidance for spodumene concentrate shipments to between 380,000 and 440,000 tonnes in the year ending June 30, from 440,000 to 490,000 tons previously.

• The global push toward electrified transport has fired up consumption for lithium and the battery material’s prices have more than tripled this year to a record. Miners are scurrying to expand capacity, but they can’t keep up with demand and market tightness is likely to persist in the near term.
• “We expect both lithium chemicals and spodumene prices to continue to go up,” said Dennis Ip and Leo Ho, analysts at Daiwa Capital Markets. Spodumene — lithium-bearing hard rock and the material Pilbara produces — is in particularly short-supply, they added, with ongoing price hikes likely…read more.