According to a solicitation issued by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) of the U.S. Department of Defense on July 2, 2026 (local time), the agency plans to procure battery-grade lithium carbonate through a five-year fixed-price contract to replenish the U.S. National Defense Stockpile.
The total procurement ceiling is 16,167 metric tons, with a maximum contract value of $300 million and a minimum guaranteed purchase amount of $1 million. Bids are due by July 17, and the contract will be awarded to the lowest-priced offeror whose technical proposal meets the requirements.
Product specifications require powder-form battery-grade lithium carbonate with a purity of no less than 99.5%, to be delivered to DLA‑designated warehouses in New York, Nevada, Indiana, or Ohio.
The procurement will be carried out in phases, with an estimated first‑year purchase of approximately 3,657 tons, followed by gradually decreasing annual volumes, reaching about 2,839 tons in the fifth contract year.
According to the solicitation documents, the ceiling unit price is approximately $18,558.98 per metric ton (equivalent to about RMB 134,500 per ton).
In March of this year, the DLA had previously issued a request for information regarding a potential procurement of 550 tons of lithium carbonate.
The U.S. National Defense Stockpile was established in 1939 to provide strategic material reserves for national emergencies. Historically, it has primarily stockpiled chromite, manganese, tin, nickel, copper, aluminum, natural rubber, and other commodities, with cobalt and lithium added in recent years. This procurement marks the first large-scale U.S. action to include lithium in the National Defense Stockpile.
Lithium has broad applications in defense and energy—from the F‑35 fighter jet to grid‑scale energy storage—making it a foundational material supporting modern military and energy systems. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in 2024, among 50 critical mineral commodities in the United States, 12 were 100% import‑dependent, and 28 had import reliance exceeding 50%. Currently, most of the world's battery‑grade lithium carbonate refining capacity is concentrated in Asia, while U.S. domestic lithium salt refining capacity accounts for a relatively small share.
In February 2026, the United States hosted the inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial Meeting and launched the "Resource Geopolitical Engagement Forum." Around the same time, the U.S. unveiled the "Fort Knox Plan," with initial funding of approximately $12 billion. The U.S. plans to invest billions of dollars to build critical mineral supply chains, and analysts expect this effort will take at least a decade.
In terms of scale, the five‑year total of about 16,200 tons of lithium carbonate—roughly 3,200 tons per year—compares with a projected global lithium carbonate demand of more than 2 million tons in 2026, meaning the annual procurement accounts for less than 0.3% of global demand.
This scale is very small relative to global lithium salt consumption and is significantly smaller than the market impact of demand fluctuations from new energy vehicles and energy storage. Therefore, this procurement is more akin to a low‑frequency, long‑term, strategic stockpiling initiative, and its marginal impact on spot market fundamentals is fairly limited.
