Lithium is widely used in the battery industry, ceramic industry, glass industry, aluminum industry, lubricant, refrigeration, nuclear industry, optical electric industry, etc newly emerged fields. In the field of lithium application in 2006, the ratios of battery industry, lubricant and ceramic industry amounted to 21.4%, 16.54% and 12.65% respectively. Meanwhile, as lithium carbonate is the basic material to produce lithium salt and lithium, lithium carbonate becomes the key in the lithium industry, and other industrial lithium products are downstream products of lithium carbonate generally.

Currently, the global lithium carbonate market capacity is 80-90 thousand tons, and from the perspective of the inorganic salt annual report in Asia, the global lithium carbonate demand amounted to 83.8 thousand tons in 2006, and the supply was 85 thousand tons, so the supply and demand was balanced. It is forecasted that the global lithium carbonate demand will exceed 90 thousand tons in 2007, whose growth margin will reach about 8%; in addition, the global lithium demand will increase at the pace of 5-7% in the following 3-5 years.

Although China has Salt Lake with high resource value, China achieved technology breakthrough in 2004, which made China enter the global lithium carbonate market. Presently, the lithium carbonate production capacity is only 33 thousand tons in China, and 45 thousand-ton production capacity will be released from 2008 to 2010. As China is the main region of global lithium carbonate production capacity release, it will influence much on the global lithium carbonate supply layout.

At present, the main production capacity in the world mainly concentrates in SQM, FMC and Chemetall, the accumulated market shares of which accounts to 73%.

Along with the continuous input of large-scaled lithium carbonate projects in China, the demand and supply balance of lithium carbonate will worsen soon. The global lithium carbonate surplus will amount to 13.2 thousand tons in 2007, and it will become worse in 2008. The supply will be much larger than the demand, which will lead to rapid price drop.

2 Lithium Carbonate Technology Development Trend 
2.1 Current Lithium Carbonate Quality Standard Classification 
2.1.1 Industry Field 
2.1.2 Fluorescence Field 
2.1.3 Battery Field 
2.1.4 Medicine Field 
2.1.5 High Purification Field 
2.2 Comparison of Main Domestic and Foreign Lithium Carbonate Production Technologies and Cost 
2.2.1 Extracting Lithium from Ore 
2.2.2 Extracting Lithium from Brine of Salt Lake 
2.3 Comparison of Lithium Carbonate Production Cost 
2.3.1 Production Routes and Comments 
2.3.2 Main Manufacturers and Cost Calculation 
2.3.3 Influence of Other Key Factors (except for Technique) on Lithium Carbonate Cost 

3 Lithium Carbonate Supply and Demand in 2006 and Market Forecast in 2007 
3.1 Current Lithium Carbonate Market Structure and Driving Forces of Market Development 
3.1.1 Global Lithium Carbonate Market Scale 
3.1.2 Driving Forces for Future Lithium Carbonate Market Development 
3.1.3 Global Lithium Carbonate Demand Forecast 2007-2008 
3.2 Lithium Carbonate Industry Concentricity and Influence of Future Production Capacity Release 
3.2.1 Production Capacity of Main Global Lithium Carbonate Enterprises and Newly-added Projects 
3.2.2 Production Capacity of Main Lithium Carbonate Enterprises and Newly-added Projects in China 
3.2.3 Forecast of Global Lithium Carbonate Demand, 2007-2008 
3.2.4 Output of Global Main Lithium Carbonate Enterprises and Output Forecast in 2007 
3.2.5 Forecast of Global Lithium Carbonate Supply and Demand Pattern, 2007-2008  

4 Price Trend and Forecast of Lithium Carbonate Products 
4.1 Price Fluctuation, 1998-2006  
4.2 Price Trend Forecast, 2007-2010 
4.3 Product Prices of Main Lithium Carbonate Enterprises, 2006 

5 Lithium Carbonate Import and Export and Trade Trend 
5.1 Import, 2006 
5.2 Export, 2006 
5.3 Import and Export Pattern, 2006 
5.4 Import and Export Price Trend, 2006 

6 Operation Evaluation of Key Lithium Carbonate Manufacturers 
6.1 CITIC Guo'an 
6.1.1 Company Profile 
6.1.2 Current Production Capacity, Newly-added Production Capacity and Output 
6.1.3 Revenue Structure, 2005-2006 
6.1.4 Profitability Evaluation, 2005-2006 
6.1.5 Development Forecast and Prospect Forecast, 2007 
6.2 Tibet Mineral Development Co., Ltd 
6.2.1 Company Profile 
6.2.2 Current Production Capacity, Newly-added Production Capacity and Output 
6.2.3 Revenue Structure, 2005-2006 
6.2.4 Profitability Evaluation, 2005-2006 
6.2.5 Development Forecast and Prospect Forecast, 2007 
6.3 Qinghai Lithium Co., Ltd 
6.3.1 Company Profile 
6.3.2 Current Production Capacity, Newly-added Production Capacity and Output 
6.3.3 Development Forecast and Prospect Forecast, 2007 
6.4 Salt Lake Group 
6.4.1 Company Profile 
6.4.2 Current Production Capacity, Newly-added Production Capacity and Output 
6.4.3 Development Forecast and Prospect Forecast, 2007 
6.5 Others 

7 Five Competition Theories of China Lithium Carbonate Enterprises Market Competition Environment 
7.1 Threat of Entrants 
7.2 Buyers 
7.3 Suppliers 
7.4 Threat of New Products (Substitutions) 
7.5 Current Competitors in the Industry 

8 Risk Evaluation of Lithium Carbonate Industry, 2007 
8.1 Macro Economy Fluctuation Risk 
8.2 Policy Risk 
8.3 Upstream and Downstream Industry Change Risk 
8.4 Contradiction Risk of Supply and Demand 
8.5 Industry Competition Risk 
8.6 Comprehensive Evaluation of Industry Risk