TIANQI Lithium, one of the world’s top lithium producers, is talking to banks about adjusting the terms of its debt as a key repayment on a loan looms and the lithium market tanks.

The Shenzhen-listed firm previously said it was weighing asset sales or bringing in strategic investors after a plunge in prices for lithium, a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries, left it struggling to repay a multibillion-dollar loan taken out to fund a major acquisition in 2018.

In response to a question on an interactive investor platform Friday, Tianqi said it was “actively” communicating with various partner banks with regard to “adjusting the maturity structure of the debt, relaxing loan conditions and other measures” to ease its liquidity problems.

It agreed to buy a 23.8 percent stake in Chilean miner Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile, or SQM, in May 2018 for US$4.1 billion, most of which came from a US$3.5 billion syndicated loan led by State-owned firm Citic Group.

Around US$1.9 billion in that loan is due to be repaid by November 2020, the company said, answering a separate question.

Tianqi, whose market capitalization has slumped well below the price it paid for the SQM stake, said it was also communicating with local governments, regulators and creditors to safeguard credit lines.

Prices for lithium have plunged more than 70 percent since Tianqi agreed the acquisition as supply overwhelms demand, which has now been hit by the coronavirus outbreak. (SD-Agencies)