The bull market for battery metals—cobalt, lithium and nickel—is over, with their prices expected to drop over the next two years despite rising demand for electric vehicles (EVs), according to Goldman Sachs, reports the South China Morning Post.
The US bank’s analysts forecast that there will be a huge surplus of the three metals over the next one or two years, causing prices to trend lower, as the investments poured into boosting their output will lead to excess supply.
“With climate change top of mind, investors are fully aware that battery metals will play a crucial role in the 21st-century global economy, just as bulk and base metals did before them,” said analysts including Nicholas Snowdon in a note published on Sunday. “Yet despite this exponential demand profile, we see the battery metals bull market as over for now.”