I do think the whole GB thing has been exaggerated and misunderstood my many.
They are not withdrawing supply from the glass and ceramic markets at all. They have not decided to "stop" supplying the market. They are simply looking to value add themselves rather than passing to Chinese converters. Every bit of tech grade they produce now will still be supplied to for ceramic glass as far as I know.
This is merely part of a bigger shift away from the smaller processors that grew around Jiangxi province where spodumene was mined in China previously. The shift is also starting away from the smaller processors towards battery manufacturers. It's simply eliminating the middle man.
I am still waiting for some to tell me where else in the world Spodumene is processed apart from China. As far as I know it all goes to China including every Australian off-take for Spodumene. Outside China (and inside ref: BYD) they use brines. Spodumene is big in China because their Lithium market grew up around it and they still love it. I'm not convinced that is the case in the rest of the world. While Spodumene would appear easier to process as with any production facility there would be changes needed. For a quantum shift away from China we would need to see a non Chinese battery manufacturer sign a major off-take for Spodumene. In addition Panasonic decided to build their new factory in China and one would hope they will produce from Spodumene because that is the preferred tech.
It still currently revolves around China. The place where they convert Spodumene and the place where e.v growth is highest.
PLS Price at posting:
60.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)