Until the early 2000s, the United States, Japan, and the European Union were the primary markets for battery minerals. However, China has since overtaken them, becoming the dominant destination for these resources. Between 2017 and 2022, the country accounted for 87% of global lithium imports, 70% of bauxite and nickel imports, 63% of manganese and copper imports, and 53% of cobalt imports.
Through a comprehensive strategy to conquer critical materials, China now dominates the global value chains of these minerals, both upstream, by controlling supply sources, and downstream, through refining processes. As a result, it processes an average of 80% of the non-ferrous metals used in electric vehicle batteries worldwide.

Main importers of minerals for lithium-ion batteries during the period 2017-2022

Reading the chart

• The brown circles represent minerals used in lithium-ion batteries: Al (aluminum and bauxite), Co (cobalt), Cu (copper), Gr (natural graphite), Li (lithium), Mn (manganese), and Ni (nickel). The gray circles indicate importing countries: CHN (China), IND (India), JPN (Japan), KOR (South Korea), TUR (Turkey), EU (European Union), USA (United States), etc.
• The thickness of the arrows reflects the share of importing countries in the global market for the corresponding mineral, while the size of the gray circles indicates their overall share in the global market for all these minerals.

Source: Authors' calculations from CEPII-BACI database.