Offtake pricing, page-16

I anticipate China NEV sales could be down a bit in May and June from historical seasonal figures due to manufacturers offering cut price deals to get rid of their remaining stock of ICE cars of older standards which after 1 June will not be permitted to be sold (they’ll take almost anything they can get for them to sell rather than have to scrap them). Then NEV sales will rocket north again from July for second half of year.

Of course lead time for material supplies for manufacturers to stock inventory of the expected NEVs post June is already underway, so I expect pricing for materials (such as battery component materials including LiCO3 / LiOH) are already turning north as manufacturers start demanding more inventory in advance. The clamp down in demand for raw materials via draw down of previous inventory of raw materials was, I believe, partly to “support” manufacturers (pressure) to sell off the soon-to-be-non-compliant ICE models prior to end of June 2023.