(Yicai Global) July 15 -- Ganfeng Lithium’s Hong Kong shares reached an all-time high today and its Shenzhen-listed stock closed just short of their record after the leading Chinese supplier of key raw materials for electric car batteries said it expects profit in the first half to soar by as much as 10 times from the same period last year as the prices of its main products surge.

Ganfeng Lithium’s Hong Kong share price [HKG:1772] closed up 3.76 percent at HKD146.40 (USD18.85). Earlier in the day it had reached HKD156. Its Shenzhen stock [SHE:002460] finished the day up 5.05 percent at CNY167.79 (USD26), just short of its record high of CNY170.40 on July 13.

Ganfeng Lithium’s net profit for the six months ended June 30 is expected to range from CNY1.3 billion (USD201.3 million) to CNY1.6 billion, a between eight-fold and ten-fold year-on-year gain, the Xinyu, southeastern Jiangxi province-based firm said in a revised earnings forecast yesterday.

This is a significant hike from its previous forecast at the end of the first quarter when the lithium producer said it expected first-half net profit to be between CNY800 million and CNY1.2 billion. It also shows that the firm is anticipating net profit in the second quarter to be double to triple that of the first quarter, which came in at CNY476 million.

The improved forecast is mainly due to higher-than-expected price increases for key products, as well as growth in the fair value of the firm’s stake in Australia’s Pilbara mine in which it holds 8.4 percent equity, Ganfeng Lithium said, which counts electric car giants Tesla, Volkswagen and BMW among its clients.

The prices of Ganfeng Lithium’s main products, lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, have both doubled since December last year due to surging demand for electric car batteries, according to commodity data platform 100PPI.

Editor: Kim Taylor