(Yicai) Oct. 25 -- Tianqi Lithium's shares rose despite China's largest lithium miner forecasting a net loss of up to CNY5.9 billion (USD828.3 million) in the first nine months of this year due to a drop in product prices and gross profit.

Tianqi Lithium [SHE: 002466] ended up 6.3 percent at CNY36.89 (USD5.18) a share in Shenzhen today. Its Hong Kong-traded stock [HKG: 9696] soared 7.4 percent to HKD26.85 (USD3.46).

Net loss will likely reach CNY5.5 billion to CNY5.9 billion in the nine months ended Sept. 30, compared with a net profit of CNY8.1 billion a year earlier, the Chengdu-based company announced yesterday.

For the third quarter, net loss is expected to stand at CNY320 to CNY640 million (USD44.9 million to USD89.81 million), versus a profit of CNY1.6 billion a year ago, Tianqi Lithium noted. However, it will likely narrow between 51 percent and 76 percent from its second-quarter loss.

Tianqi Lithium's net loss also shrank 67 percent to CNY1.3 billion in the second quarter from the prior one. The firm began to rack up losses in the fourth quarter of last year.

In April, the Santiago court in Chile overturned a decision on the tax litigation of Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile, in which Tianqi Lithium holds a 22 percent stake, for 2017 and 2018 made by the Tax and Customs Tribunal on Nov. 7, 2022. The new ruling resulted in the recognition of around USD1.1 billion in income tax expenses, reducing Sociedad Química's net profit by about that amount.

Several institutions have predicted that lithium prices will rise in the future. The suspension of production at Contemporary Amperex Technology's lithium mine in Jiangxi province will likely lead to lithium prices increasing by 11 percent to 23 percent by the end of this year, according to a report by UBS.

Lithium output at Yichun in Jiangxi province will be adjusted in response to recent developments in the lithium carbonate market, Ningde-based CATL told Yicai on Sept. 11.

As demand for new energy vehicles continues to grow, the overall profitability of lithium battery firms is expected to bottom out, a research report by Cinda Securities showed. The periodic oversupply issue in the market will likely gradually reach a turning point.  

Editor: Martin Kadiev