Fastmarkets 2026: 3 Themes Shaping Lithium’s Next Chapter

The 18th edition of the Fastmarket’s Global Lithium, Battery and Critical Materials took place in Las Vegas last week, bringing together an array of analysts, mining companies, market watchers and end use customers. This year’s event combined three segments of the battery and critical minerals narrative, raw material supply and demand, battery and energy storage and defense.

Although the topics at the 2026 event extended from cathode material supply to the US midterms, covering the entire spectrum of battery materials, the extensive conference agenda was unified by several core themes.

The initial and most prominent theme focused on how the current lithium market is positioned differently compared to previous cycles. In the past, prices for both hydroxide and carbonate surged to record highs of US$80,000 or more per metric ton in 2022, before eventually hitting a floor in the US$8,000 per metric ton range in June 2025.

“This year lithium really seems to have turned the corner,” said Paul Lusty, head of battery raw materials at Fastmarkets. “This time last year when I was up here, the market bottomed around the middle of last year, and prices have really rallied quite hard since then, but I think what comes next, and this is what I’m going to take you through this morning, certainly looks very different from the previous cycle, so what a difference a year makes.”

During an interview with the Investing News Network (INN) Lusty offered further insights into the current lithium market, and its development.

“The market is evolving, it’s maturing fast markets, is certainly trying to bring more transparency to the market, be its pricing of battery raw materials, but also supporting the market, so I think broadly longer term, it will become a less volatile market as that demand base diversifies, both in terms of end use, but also geography, also as we see large scale producers step into the industry,” he said.

He also pointed to increased participation from major diversified miners and oil and gas companies as an important shift for the lithium sector. The financial capacity of these large scale producers allows them to navigate cyclical downturns and could provide greater supply stability over the long term.

At the same time, efforts to expand lithium conversion and consumption outside China could help diversify the supply chain and reduce market concentration, creating a more resilient industry.