As July rolls in, listed lithium ore and lithium salt firms on the A-share market have successively unveiled their half-year performance forecasts. Fuelled by the steady uptick in lithium salt prices, the sector has fully emerged from the losses plaguing it in previous years, staging an industry-wide recovery featuring universal profitability and sharp projected profit growth.
Lithium salt prices traced a trajectory of initial gains followed by mild corrections in the first half of this year. Interviewees widely agree that the current lithium price rally stems from the combined effect of supply disruptions, a surge in downstream demand and active inventory restocking by manufacturers.
Lithium Firms Forecast Broad-Based H1 Profit Surges
Data from Eastmoney Choice shows that as of July 9, five lithium enterprises including Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co., Ltd. (Salt Lake Co., Ltd.), Zangge Mining Co., Ltd. (Zangge Mining) and Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group Co., Ltd. (Yahua Group) have released their 2026 H1 performance forecasts. All recorded a substantial year-on-year jump in net profit attributable to parent company shareholders (hereinafter referred to as net profit), marking a full recovery in industry prosperity.
Specifically, Salt Lake Co., Ltd.’s 2026 half-year performance forecast estimates its net profit will reach RMB 6 billion to 6.3 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 131.38% to 142.95%.
Three core growth drivers underpin the company’s robust earnings growth. First, its potash chloride business remains a stable foundation. The firm produced around 1.6817 million tonnes and sold approximately 2.2473 million tonnes of potash chloride in H1; rising output and prices drove a sharp rise in profitability for this segment. Second, lithium carbonate has become a major new growth engine. Its 40,000-tonne-per-year basic lithium salt project entered full mass production, yielding roughly 49,400 tonnes of lithium carbonate output and 39,100 tonnes of sales volume. Coupled with a steep year-on-year surge in market prices, profit margins continued to expand. Third, the consolidation of Minmetals Salt Lake Co., Ltd. into its financial statements further boosted overall corporate earnings.
Zangge Mining and Yahua Group, which released their H1 2026 forecasts on July 7, also delivered standout results. Zangge Mining expects an H1 net profit of RMB 3.55 billion to 3.75 billion, up 97.2% to 108.31% year on year. Yahua Group projects an H1 net profit of RMB 1.1 billion to 1.3 billion, skyrocketing 710.17% to 857.48% year on year, with its lithium business acting as the core catalyst for earnings expansion.
Mid-tier lithium enterprises also saw simultaneous earnings recovery. Guocheng Mining Co., Ltd. forecasts an H1 net profit of RMB 900 million to 1 billion, a year-on-year rise of 72.82% to 92.02%. A key contributor to its profit growth is surging output and prices of lithium concentrate at its associated subsidiary Ma’erkang Jinxin Mining Co., Ltd., which greatly lifted investment income.
Shengxin Lithium Energy Group Co., Ltd. swung back to profitability year on year, forecasting an H1 net profit of RMB 1 billion to 1.2 billion. The turnaround is driven by a sharp capacity ramp-up at its Indonesian lithium salt plant, which delivered simultaneous growth in output and selling prices of lithium salt products.
The across-the-board earnings upgrades among lithium firms are primarily fueled by the overall uptrend in lithium salt prices during H1 2026. Eastmoney Choice statistics show domestic battery-grade lithium carbonate (99.5% purity) fluctuated up then down from January to June 2026. The average market price stood at RMB 120,000 per tonne at the start of the year, climbed to a stage high of RMB 200,000 per tonne in mid-May, and retreated to RMB 156,500 per tonne by late June, with the full-year price benchmark markedly lifted.
Jiang Han, Senior Research Fellow at Pangu Think Tank (Beijing) Information Consulting Co., Ltd., told reporters from the Securities Daily, “The current market rally is a synergy of supply disruptions, booming demand and manufacturers restocking inventories. Explosive energy storage demand and better-than-expected new energy vehicle exports are the core forces pushing lithium prices higher.”
Lithium Salt Prices to Fluctuate at High Levels in H2
Multiple industry institutions and corporate executives predict lithium salt prices will maintain a high and volatile pattern in the second half of the year, with clear caps on both upside and downside room.
Zheng Lu, Secretary of the Board at Yahua Group, told the Securities Daily, “Sustained robust demand from the downstream energy storage sector provides solid support for lithium salt prices.”
Gao Chengyuan, Dean of Yuanjing Influence Research Institute, shared his view with the Securities Daily: “On the supply side, despite new capacity coming online in Australia, Africa and South America, actual supply growth remains limited due to lengthy capacity ramp-up cycles, declining ore grades and stringent environmental regulations. On the demand side, China’s new energy vehicle penetration rate has surpassed 50%, while energy storage installations keep expanding rapidly. Downstream inventory replenishment demand will continuously underpin lithium salt prices.”
During a recent investor relations event, Salt Lake Co., Ltd. stated that the overall lithium carbonate price benchmark has moved higher this year, with short-term prices seeing periodic swings driven by market sentiment. On the demand side, the strategic value of coordinated development between the new energy sector and traditional energy continues to grow. Meanwhile, fast-expanding emerging tracks including energy storage and humanoid robots, paired with widening application scenarios, will drive steady long-term growth in demand for lithium salt and upstream lithium battery materials. On the supply side, the pace of new upstream capacity commissioning has slowed, keeping the industry in a tight supply-demand balance. (Outlook New Era)
Edit：Liu Zhiyu Responsible editor：Li Yulu
Source：http://www.zqrb.cn/
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