Modern Mining September 2025

COMMODITIES OUTLOOK

Vanadium outlook improves as battery demand gains ground While most of the world’s vanadium is used to strengthen steel for construction, automotive, aviation, pipeline, and tooling applications, its future demand potential also lies in grid-scale energy storage. As battery deployment accelerates to meet global decarbonisation goals, vanadium demand is set to grow, driven by its role in long-duration energy storage, particularly in vanadium flow batteries. B etween 2022 and 2024, the vanadium market faced an oversupply as slowing global steel demand led to rising inventories. More recently, the market has begun to tighten,

driven by reduced steel slag recovery in China and the loss of output from a South African producer – factors leading to the drawdown in excess stock. Terry Perles, President of TTP Squared and a noted vanadium industry expert commented “With a potential supply shortfall by 2029, the vanadium market has an opportunity to grow by unlocking existing and new sources of production to meet surging demand, driven mainly by growth in battery energy storage.” Vanadium Flow Batteries Driving New Growth Vanitec, the not-for-profit global member organisation whose objective it is to promote the use of vanadium-bearing materials, says the fastest-growing application for vanadium is in grid scale energy storage, specifically vanadium flow batteries (VFBs). These systems use vanadium based electrolytes to store electricity safely and

efficiently, making them ideal for supporting renewable power. Once a niche battery energy storage solution, VFBs are emerging as a major energy storage contender and resultant vanadium demand driver. “Since 2022, vanadium in energy storage applications has been the second largest and fastest growing consumer of vanadium, and has remained there since, driven primarily by Chinese VFB installations,” says John Hilbert, CEO of Vanitec. Flagship installations such as China’s 400 MWh Dalian system and the 1 GWh Xinjiang project completed by Rongke Power in 2025 (largest in the world to date) illustrate the scale of momentum building in this space. Although vanadium flow battery deployments outside China are not as robust, the technology is on the cusp of significant scale-up. According to an independent analysis published in 2022 by market intelligence and advisory firm, Guidehouse Insights, global annual deployments of VFBs are expected to reach approximately 32.8 GWh per annum by 2031. “Based on the VFB deployment projections by Guidehouse Insights, an estimated 155,000 metric tonnes a year of new vanadium will be needed to meet this level of VFB deployment by 2030. This equates to more than double current annual demand,” says Terry Perles, who also chairs the Vanitec Market Development Committee. Supply Side Response The vanadium supply chain is geographically dispersed, which provides scope for creating resilient supply chains to meet both the needs of traditional vanadium applications in steel, chemicals and aerospace alloys, as well as emerging clean energy

Terry Perles, President of TTP Squared and a noted vanadium industry expert.

12  MODERN MINING  www.modernminingmagazine.co.za | SEPTEMBER 2025