{"id":641784,"date":"2025-12-19T07:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T07:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/641784\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T07:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T07:32:14","slug":"can-rising-lithium-costs-save-chinas-energy-storage-firms-from-a-brutal-price-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/641784\/","title":{"rendered":"Can rising lithium costs save China\u2019s energy storage firms from a brutal price war?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">China\u2019s energy storage firms, battered by a three-year price war, have been jolted by lithium battery maker Deegares, which has announced plans to raise prices by 15 per cent, a move that is sparking debate over whether the sector could be the first to break free from the \u201cinvolution\u201d cycle.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Rising lithium costs were the immediate trigger, with at least three other battery makers reported in recent weeks to be planning similar increases. Prices of the metal, crucial to rechargeable batteries, have rebounded about 70 per cent from this year\u2019s trough, boosted by a global investment boom in artificial intelligence and a rush of electric vehicle purchases in mainland China.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The price rise comes as Beijing\u2019s \u201canti-involution campaign\u201d spread to battery manufacturing. In late November, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology met 12 industry leaders, including BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu, and pledged to roll out measures faster to curb \u201cirrational\u201d competition.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cIt is not easy to see significant improvement, as the domestic supply remains at a high level,\u201d said Pierre Lau Hin-tat, China equity strategist at Citigroup Global Markets.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Workers make lithium batteries for domestic and international clients in a factory in Jiangsu. Photo: Getty\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/f566bd14-8fbe-4e79-be42-470119ceb76d_ed2458dc.jpg\" title=\"Workers make lithium batteries for domestic and international clients in a factory in Jiangsu. Photo: Getty\"\/>Workers make lithium batteries for domestic and international clients in a factory in Jiangsu. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Envision Group, a leader in the energy storage sector, complained in August that around one-third of system integrators were selling products below cost, contributing to an 80 per cent slump in selling prices over three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China\u2019s energy storage firms, battered by a three-year price war, have been jolted by lithium battery maker Deegares,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[197376,3801,51,1550,57389,1395,144696,197375,1700,43724,16255,197377,299,1824,3749,6503,108671,24068,525,197378,197379,16,15,978],"class_list":{"0":"post-641784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-ai-data-centres","9":"tag-beijing","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-byd","12":"tag-catl","13":"tag-china","14":"tag-citigroup-global-markets","15":"tag-deegares","16":"tag-economy","17":"tag-electric-vehicle","18":"tag-energy-storage","19":"tag-envision-group","20":"tag-europe","21":"tag-germany","22":"tag-hong-kong","23":"tag-lithium","24":"tag-ministry-of-industry-and-information-technology","25":"tag-nomura","26":"tag-south-korea","27":"tag-sungrow","28":"tag-trina-solar","29":"tag-uk","30":"tag-united-kingdom","31":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115745073277347466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}