Hong Kong Stock Concept Tracking | The lithium iron phosphate industry is setting off a wave of price increases. Institutions are optimistic about investment opportunities in the lithium industry chain in 2026 (with concept stocks)

The Zhitong Finance App learned that recently, the lithium iron phosphate industry is setting off a wave of intense price increases, and leading manufacturers have begun issuing clear price increase notices to customers. According to information, a major manufacturer has made it clear that processing fees for a full range of lithium iron phosphate products will be raised uniformly from 2026. Another industry source revealed that prices had already been raised for customers in the early stages. There are also companies that are still in intense negotiations with customers, but they also indicated that “price increases have become the general trend,” which is expected to fix the profit level of enterprises in the industry.

According to the “Guardian” report, the US Department of Defense is hoarding key minerals on a large scale through the National Defense Reserve Program. At least 38 minerals and metals are included in the scope of hoarding, including lithium, cobalt, graphite, and rare earth elements. These are the basic materials that the energy transition depends on.

The China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance released monthly power battery information for November 2025. In November, the domestic power battery load capacity was 93.5 GWh, up 11.2% month-on-month and 39.2% year-on-year. Among them, the loading volume of ternary batteries was 18.2 GWh, accounting for 19.4% of the total loading volume, up 9.9% month-on-month, up 33.7% year on year; the loading volume of lithium iron phosphate batteries was 75.3 GWh, accounting for 80.5% of the total loading volume, up 11.6% month-on-month and 40.7% year on year. From January to November, the cumulative load volume of domestic power batteries was 671.5 GWh, a cumulative year-on-year increase of 42.0%. Among them, the cumulative loading volume of ternary batteries was 125.9 GWh, accounting for 18.8% of the total loading volume, with a cumulative year-on-year increase of 1.0%; the cumulative loading volume of lithium iron phosphate batteries was 545.5 GWh, accounting for 81.2% of the total loading volume, with a cumulative year-on-year increase of 56.7%.

According to the December pre-production data for the lithium battery industry chain released by Xinyi Lithium Battery, the sample company's battery production schedule was 143.3 GWh, up 2.3% from month to month, the cathode was down 0.1%, the negative electrode was 154,000 tons, the month-on-month flat, and the diaphragm was 1.98 billion square meters, up 2.6% month-on-month and 109,000 tons of electrolyte, up 1.4% month-on-month. Demand is strong. This is the first time since 2022. The energy storage sector ushered in a peak connected to the grid in the fourth quarter, and sales of new energy vehicles in Europe remained high.

Jiang Anqi, chairman of Tianqi Lithium, said at the 2nd China International Lithium Industry Conference in 2025 that benefiting from renewable energy grid-connected demand and the rapid growth rate of electrification equipment such as commercial heavy trucks, demand for basic lithium materials in the energy storage sector and power batteries continues to rise. Global demand for lithium is expected to reach 2 million tons of lithium carbonate equivalent in 2026, basically reaching a balance between supply and demand. With the improvement of the supply and demand pattern of the lithium industry, the industrial chain will break down homogenized competition, and enterprises will usher in more room for development.

It is worth mentioning that Li Liangbin, chairman of Ganfeng Lithium, previously predicted that demand for lithium carbonate will increase by 30% in 2026, reaching 1.9 million tons. At the same time, supply capacity will increase by about 250,000 tons after evaluation. Supply and demand are basically balanced, and there is room for lithium carbonate prices to rise. If demand grows by more than 30% or even 40% next year, supply is unbalanced in the short term, the price may exceed 150,000 yuan/ton or even 200,000 yuan/ton.

CITIC Construction Investment announced investment opportunities in the lithium industry chain in 2026, stating that it still pays attention to resource self-sufficiency indicators, targets with significant output growth in the next few years; it emphasizes low-cost, high-quality resources, and crosses the high-quality targets of bulls and bears. A high resource self-sufficiency rate means a stable supply of raw materials and high gross profit, which can eliminate the risk that pure lithium salt processing may be low-profit processing in the future; as the status of lithium resources increases, overseas countries pay more and more attention to lithium. In addition, there are many mergers and acquisitions at the bottom of the industry, which focus on low-cost and high-quality resources. They can maintain good production and operation at the bottom of the cycle, have abundant cash flow, carry out mergers and acquisitions at the bottom, and have the ability to cross the cycle. As the fluctuation rate of lithium prices decreases, it is difficult to achieve the highest price in history of 600,000. Fluctuating lithium prices places emphasis on the growth of enterprises themselves, and on companies with significant increases in production capacity and output.

The Zhongtai Securities Research Report believes that as energy storage demand expectations continue to rise, next year's lithium carbonate supply and demand pattern will improve drastically from the original surplus forecast, and the equity side's performance is worth looking forward to when the industry is bottoming out.

Related Hong Kong stock companies:

Tianqi Lithium (09696): Research institutes EVtank, Ivy Economic Research Institute and China Battery Industry Research Institute jointly released the “White Paper on the Development of China's Lithium Metal Industry (2025)”. According to the white paper, leading solid-state battery companies around the world have begun to lay out and develop lithium metal as anode materials for solid-state batteries. As all-solid-state batteries are commercialized on a large scale and the penetration rate of lithium metal anodes increases, it will open up a huge incremental market for lithium metal. Among them, Tianqi Lithium has a production capacity of 600 tons of lithium metal and a production capacity of 1,000 tons under construction, ranking second in the world.

Ganfeng Lithium (01772): Ganfeng Lithium said on an interactive platform that the company has achieved large-scale mass production of energy storage batteries and established long-term stable supply cooperation with many leading companies in the industry. Currently, the company's energy storage battery production capacity is also at full capacity. In the context of the current explosion in demand for energy storage, the company relies on an integrated layout to ensure stable delivery to customers. In addition, Ganfeng Lithium said that the company continues to develop in the field of power batteries. Solid-state batteries have been tested and mass-produced in some models, and used in well-known drone and eVTOL companies. The company is speeding up the industrialization process in fields such as new energy vehicles and consumer electronics.

Ningde Era (03750): As a global leader in the field of solid-state batteries, the company uses the “all-solid+condensed semi-solid” two-line parallel strategy, leading the industry in technology and mass production capacity. Condensed batteries have been mass-produced and loaded into models such as the Nio ET9 and Xiaomi SU8, with an energy density of 400 Wh/kg, contributing 18.6 billion yuan in revenue in the first half of 2025; the energy density of sulfide all-solid-state battery laboratory samples exceeded 500 Wh/kg.

Ruipu Lanjun (00666): Ruipu Lanjun's “Long Life, High Energy Density All-Solid-State Lithium Battery” project declared by Ruipu Lanjun as the lead organization was successfully included in the public list of Zhejiang Province's 2025 “Jianbing Lingyan+X” technology plan. The project will further accelerate and deepen the company's all-solid-state battery research and development. In the field of all-solid-state batteries, through the “Jianbing Lingyan+X” technology project, the energy density of all solid-state batteries produced by the company is expected to exceed 400Wh/kg, and the products will be widely used in new applications such as passenger cars and low-altitude aircraft.