A new briefing note by Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) finds that India’s imports of key energy transition minerals and their compounds are highly concentrated, underscoring significant supply risks and the importance of diversification to enhance supply security.
The briefing note examines India’s import data for cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium, and nickel, which play a direct role in renewable energy technologies and applications. It also assesses trade dynamics, price movements, and evolving market conditions shaping India’s critical mineral supply chain.
India is currently 100% import-dependent for lithium, cobalt, and nickel.
“Reserves and processing capacity for these minerals remain highly concentrated, while recent trends of export restrictions, resource nationalism, and onshoring or friend-shoring policies are fragmenting global markets that India relied upon,” says Saloni Sachdeva Michael, Lead Energy Specialist, India Clean Energy Transition, South Asia, at IEEFA, and a co-author of the briefing note. “The consequences are price volatility, supply disruptions, and reduced availability, affecting import-dependent economies like India the most.”
Chile is India’s largest supplier of critical minerals by a wide margin, accounting for 2,800,000 tonnes of imports between financial year (FY) 2019 and FY2025, driven primarily by copper ore. China is also a systemically important supplier, alongside countries like Belgium, Germany and Japan, providing a broader range of mineral compounds across the cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium, and nickel value chains.
For cobalt, used in lithium-ion battery cathodes for electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy storage systems, Finland is India’s dominant supplier, accounting for nearly 60% of cobalt oxide and hydroxide imports in FY2025. On lithium itself, the picture is more mixed: Lithium carbonate imports have declined, with Ireland holding the largest share at nearly 40%, while lithium oxide and hydroxide imports have rebounded after a period of contraction, with Chile accounting for over 41%.
Copper is critical for power generation, transmission, and electrification. Tanzania provides over 50% of India’s copper ore and concentrate imports, signalling its emergence as a key trade partner. Meanwhile, Japan and Norway are the primary sources for copper cathodes and copper oxide and hydroxide, respectively.
When it comes to graphite, used as anode materials in lithium-ion batteries, prices for natural graphite have fallen more sharply than for synthetic graphite, reflecting oversupply, export frictions, and weaker demand. Mozambique has overtaken China as the leading natural graphite supplier, while China remains dominant in synthetic graphite at over 91% in FY2025.
Australia is a new entrant for Nickel, used in rechargeable battery cathodes, making up 65% of nickel oxides and hydroxides imports. Belgium dominates in imports for nickel sulphate at over 65%.
Taken together, these trends show that single-supplier concentration remains high. “The countries India trades with are resource holders, refiners, and technology leaders. Building resilient supply chains, therefore, will require long-term, structured partnerships that move beyond government-to-government agreements and into deep industry collaboration, joint exploration, scaled research and development, technology transfer, and recycling,” says Kaira Rakheja, Energy Analyst, South Asia, at IEEFA, and a co-author of the briefing note.
India is already making efforts to achieve diversification through diplomacy, trade and international cooperation to reduce supply risks. Australia and Japan are relatively mature partners for India in this space, with joint ventures, secured supply, and investment linkages in place. India also has evolving relationships with the US, UK, European Union (EU), South Africa, Zambia, and Argentina, and exploratory partnerships with Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, and Saudi Arabia.
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