Affected by the unexpected changes in the international environment, tight supply balance and other factors, in March 2022, the prices of energy such as oil, bulk non-ferrous metals such as copper and aluminum, and raw materials in key links such as lithium, cobalt and nickel continued to rise rapidly, the superimposed shipping cost remained high, the profits of middle and downstream enterprises continued to be under pressure, and the benefit data in March was not optimistic.
Oil and other energy prices rose rapidly, repeatedly hitting new highs in recent years. Affected by the complex and changeable foreign situation, imbalance between supply and demand and speculation in the capital market, Brent crude oil and WTI crude oil futures on the New York Stock Exchange broke through $110 and $120 / barrel in March 2022, of which the two oil prices hit a new high in recent 14 years on March 8. From the average value, the average price of the two oils in March increased by 71.2% and 80.4% respectively compared with the same period last year, and increased by 58.5% and 65.2% respectively compared with the whole year last year. At the end of March, the two oils rose 38.7% and 33.3% respectively over the beginning of the year. In addition, the rapid rise in energy prices has driven up China's import costs. In the first quarter of this year, the average import prices of China's crude oil, refined oil and natural gas increased by 56.1%, 37.4% and 78% respectively over the same period last year. Attention should be paid to the damage of the oil refining industry and the rising operating costs of downstream industries such as textile and light industry under the rapid rise of oil prices. The rise in oil prices has also affected the consumption demand of traditional fuel vehicles to a certain extent.
Copper prices remained high and aluminum prices rose sharply. Affected by factors such as the imbalance between copper supply and demand, the tightening of aluminum supply and capital speculation, the London Metal Exchange (LME) maintained a record high of more than US $10000 for three months in March 2022, and aluminum rose rapidly in LME3 months. Among them, it rose to a record high of US $4200 / ton on March 7. On average, copper and aluminum increased by 14% and 60.1% respectively in March compared with the same period last year, and increased by 9.3% and 29.8% respectively compared with the whole year last year. At the end of March, LME copper and aluminum increased by 6.7% and 25.4% respectively compared with the beginning of the year. It is necessary to focus on the impact of rising copper and aluminum prices on the rising costs of power equipment, light industry, household appliances, automobiles, building materials and other industries respectively.
Lithium nickel hit a record high and cobalt continued to operate at a high level. Affected by the imbalance between supply and demand and other factors, cobalt, nickel, electrolytic nickel, lithium iron phosphate materials, battery grade lithium hydroxide and battery grade lithium carbonate increased by 16.3%, 60.6%, 40.4%, 63.1%, 1.2 times and 82.7% respectively over the beginning of the year, 59.3%, 80.3%, 55.6%, 1.7 times, 3.3 times and 3.1 times respectively over the average value of 2021. Lithium nickel hit a record high in March, while cobalt continued to operate at a high level and reached a new high since July 2018. LME nickel exceeded $100000 / ton on March 8. From the average value, the prices of the above raw materials in March increased by 54.3%, 1.3 times, 74.5%, 2.5 times, 6 times and 4.9 times respectively compared with the average price in the same period last year. It is necessary to focus on the sharp rise in the price of raw materials in key links such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, which increases the manufacturing cost of new energy vehicles. Since the middle of last year, the prices of lithium iron phosphate cell and ternary cell have increased by about 50% and 57.1% respectively. Since the announcement of the price increase of more than 70000 yuan of Tesla and Guangpeng energy models.
