It looks like the IRA in the US and CRMA in Europe will change the supply chains going forward. It's all in the making and more details on the CRMA is set to be released next week. After reading multiple articles and EU press releases it's pretty clear that ESG and less reliance on China are the key points.
A lot will happen during 2023.
Article from The Korea Herald, Mar 10, 2023
"Although Korean battery makers -- LG Electronics, Samsung SDI and SK On -- set up manufacturing plants in Europe and have been operating the plants well, the CRMA could pose troubling obstacles for them, as the law is expected to curb the inflow of raw materials from China.“The essence of the CRMA issue is what the detailed proportion requirements of critical raw materials will look like. If the CRMA turns out to have similar regulations as the IRA, (Korean) battery makers will have to find alternatives for the supply of key materials such as lithium,” a battery industry official said."
Full article linkEuropean Parliament Press Release, 9 Dec, 2022
"According to the deal, all economic operators placing batteries on the EU market, except for SMEs, will be required to develop and implement a so-called “due diligence policy”, consistent with international standards, to address the social and environmental risks linked to sourcing, processing and trading raw materials and secondary raw materials."
Full press release linkArticle from S&P Global, Feb 18, 2022
But problems persist in the burgeoning industry, even beyond abuses among small-scale cobalt miners laid bare in 2016, according to a report published in late 2021. The 28-month investigation by the U.K. corporate accountability group Rights and Accountability in Development, or RAID, and the legal aid center in Congo known as the Centre d'Aide Juridico-Judiciaire, or CAJJ, found Congolese workers at industrial-scale cobalt mines faced "dire conditions" characterized by low pay, long hours, scant health benefits, degrading treatment and discrimination. "The situation for workers at these cobalt mines that are feeding our electric vehicle revolution are dire and exploitative," Anneke Van Woudenberg, executive director of RAID, said in an interview. "It should raise huge questions for EV manufacturers about their supply chains and the responsibility for respecting workers' rights and human rights within their supply chains."
Full article link23 March 2023 - Upcoming Benchmark webinar for anyone that's interested in the ESG side.
"In this webinar, Benchmark’s ESG analysts will discuss globally shared material topics for three key raw materials in the lithium ion battery supply chain - lithium, cobalt and nickel.From water security in the lithium triangle of South America, to biodiversity risks in Indonesia, this webinar will explore shared trends in ESG issues across three minerals central to the energy transition."
Link to register for webinar
(20min delay)