RE: Rns6 Sep 2023 11:37
I think the big problem with EU interest is that they just can’t seem to react to situations very quickly, it’s large a large container ship that takes forever to change direction. Whereas as we’ve seen in different companies the Chinese are agile and can, and they also seem to have large amounts of cash they can throw at projects to get them up and running quickly. I seem to remember AV saying that a German delegation came out and when asked what their timescale was it was 1-2 years after it went through various committees, whereas one Chinese company offered an ‘eye watering’ amount there and then. Obviously this might be an extreme example but an interesting observation.
Let’s not forget as well that the Chinese are also way ahead in EV battery production compared to the EU, so a lot of catch-up required, hopefully the EU want to close that gap?
The mention of south Korea is interesting too as POSCO have recently been making big pushes into lithium. I know it’s a salt flat situation in Argentina, but they have invested almost $2 billion late last year, as well as a $0.5 billion JV with Pilbara Minerals to build a Lithium Hydroxide Monohydrate plant early this year in S Korea. So they do seem very active in the Lithium space.