Europe is set for a significant shortfall of homegrown anode and cathode supply this decade, as investment in new plants fails to keep pace with the region’s electric vehicle growth. The region is forecast to produce just 143 gigawatt-hours of cathodes and 42 GWh of anodes in 2031, compared to over one terawatt-hour of demand. […]
> Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, specialising in battery supply chain research and insights, reports that 12.7GWh of new operational capacity entered operation in October 2025. Operational Capacity The grid-scale BESS market saw 12.7GWh of new capacity enter operations globally in October 2025, a y-o-y increase of 29%. China led new operational capacity with just under 8.8GWh of […]
> G7 nations and the European Union (EU) are reportedly examining a proposal to introduce price floors for rare earth elements, as they seek measures to reduce strategic vulnerabilities and break China’s dominance over the supply chain. China has built a monopoly on global rare earth production and accounts for 91% of global refined rare earth […]
> Graphite accounts for up to a quarter of the weight of a battery cell, but the value of this material is typically not recovered when a battery is recycled. Very few commercial-scale recyclers extract graphite in a form suitable to reuse in a battery, meaning new batteries require virgin graphite to be mined. Almost three-quarters […]
> Vulcan Energy Resources, an Australian DLE (direct lithium extraction) developer operating in Europe, has signed an eight-year offtake agreement with commodity trader Glencore. Under this agreement Glencore will take 40,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide (35,200 tonnes LCE) over an eight-year period starting from when Vulcan Energy enters commercial production, towards the end of the decade. […]
> Following the conclusion of a formal public consultation, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is modifying the specification of its high energy anode material grades to include a minimum charging rate, relevant for EV applications. This modification to the methodology for two of the existing grades in the Benchmark Anode Price Assessment begins from 15 October 2025. Two […]
> Since January 2025, 108GWh of LFP production capacity has been announced in North America through to 2030, bringing the total to 281GWh. These announcements have been driven by the increasing importance of the BESS industry in the US, as tax credits for EVs have been phased out. How is future capacity changing? The new capacity […]
> Europe’s cathode active material supply is set to increase 360% between 2025 and 2030, supported by a growing number of facilities owned by non-European companies. Despite this growth, Benchmark forecasts that European CAM supply will remain lower than the region’s cell production, meaning gigafactories will depend on imports. Europe’s cathode scene today The key European […]
> The UK currently has no operating lithium extraction facilities. However, there are ambitious plans to develop this industry, with 97,000 tonnes LCE per year of nameplate capacity in the pipeline at various stages of funding and development. Direct lithium extraction (DLE) from geothermal brines accounts for 60% of this pipeline, according to Benchmark’s Lithium Forecast. […]