China will strictly investigate and punish hoarding, price gouging and unfair competition in the upstream and downstream lithium battery industry to maintain market order, a government document said today.

However, Li does not believe the continued rise in lithium carbonate prices is due to a supply-demand imbalance, but rather to speculation.

In a speech at the 2022 China Auto Forum on November 9, Zhu Huarong, chairman of Chinese auto giant Changan Automobile, said high battery prices are caused by factors including raw material price hikes, speculation by capital, sellers' hesitation to sell and hoarding by middlemen.

Zhu suggested that China should carry out a crackdown on some players' profiteering and stop some companies from hoarding and speculating on raw materials.

In addition to mentioning that price gouging will be cracked down on, the latest document also says that lithium battery producers should set reasonable development goals to avoid low-level homogeneous development and vicious competition.