New York, Feb 23, 2026, 15:13 EST — Regular session
Albemarle Corp (ALB) saw its stock climb 3.9% to $174.93 in Monday afternoon trading, pulling ahead of the broader market as investors watched lithium prices for signs of direction after China’s holiday slowdown. Shares in Chile’s SQM (SQM) advanced 1.3%, while Lithium Americas (LAC) edged up 0.4%, Google Finance data showed. (Google)
Lithium prices tend to react sharply to sudden restocking spurts, not just the underlying demand from EVs and grid batteries. With China pausing for the Spring Festival, physical trading dries up—making price signals harder to read.
So, for now, producers and battery suppliers are left looking back at pre-holiday action — and scanning the first signals after the break — to gauge if this latest uptick has staying power or fizzles out into the same old range.
Battery-grade lithium carbonate prices in China swung sharply ahead of the holiday, Shanghai Metals Market reported, with early February seeing pressure before a bounce late in the month. SMM cited a pre-holiday low at 134,500 yuan per metric ton, then noted the most-traded futures briefly surpassed 150,000 yuan. On the supply front, domestic production is forecast to drop roughly 15% in February from January—plant maintenance got concentrated this month. As prices slipped, downstream buyers moved in, pushing their share of SMM’s sample inventory to 43.2% by Feb. 12, though total inventory kept falling. (Metal News)
Prices for lithium hydroxide, a staple for higher-nickel cathodes, ticked higher ahead of the holiday, with SMM noting a moderate rebound. On Feb. 13, the agency pegged prices between 130,000 and 145,000 yuan per ton—an average of 137,500 yuan, marking a 5,000 yuan rise from Feb. 6. SMM expects February production to drop over 10% from January due to fewer operating days and scheduled maintenance. Buyers, meanwhile, held back on purchases, balking at the steeper offers, with SMM highlighting sluggish deal activity. (Metal News)
Listed producers get a clear takeaway here: when supply runs tight and buyers start to restock, prices usually find support, and that usually shows up in the share prices. Still, the dynamic can prove shaky—especially if trading is driven more by what’s happening in the futures market than by what’s actually available in spot.
Albemarle, the world’s biggest lithium supplier, has been scaling back conversion capacity as it waits for economics to turn more favorable. Earlier this month, the company announced plans to idle the last operating processing unit at its Kemerton facility in Western Australia. CEO Kent Masters put it bluntly: “recent lithium price improvements alone are not enough” to handle the obstacles facing hard-rock conversion there. (Reuters)
There’s an obvious risk here: if maintenance wraps up and plants come back online faster than people think, fresh supply could hit the market just as buyers finish restocking. In that setup, lithium prices are vulnerable to a sudden slide — and equities tied to the metal could just as quickly give up gains.
The calendar flips to Tuesday, Feb. 24 for the next decisive moment—China’s markets come back online post-Spring Festival, and lithium carbonate futures kick off again. (Com)
