Analyst: The impact of Zimbabwe's lithium export restrictions will not be the same as the Congo's restrictions on cobalt.

Fitch Solutions' Bulk Metals Analyst Freddie Brooks said that Zimbabwe's export restrictions on lithium may be more successful than Congo's restrictions on cobalt, at least in terms of encouraging local processing. The analyst said this is because of Zimbabwe's share in global lithium production. Zimbabwe's share of production is around 10%, high enough to make it hard to replace in the lithium value chain, but not so high as to significantly increase prices and disrupt downstream demand, unlike the situation with Congo, which accounts for 75% of global cobalt production. Brooks said, "In any case, Chinese companies have already built lithium processing facilities in Zimbabwe, and compared to cobalt, lithium faces much lower replacement risks in the battery market."