Yeah I dunno, Kiara. I reckon, a fall in the USD would only serve to further inflate reported Spod prices. Supply and demand dynamics are CNY vs AUD and KRW vs AUD.
At least, our USD denominated debt and related finance charges diminish.
Lithium prices having another great day on Asian Metal with Spod up again by 1.15%. Once again, ALL prices are up.
The fizz seems to be settling in the Companies invested in the EV/ESS battery chain at the moment ... but the underlying momentum of increasing raw material prices, is running like an ocean rip for us in Stage 1 of the EV/ESS battery chain.
I'm not absolutely sure if a downstream investment is what we need. We can't go it alone, because we don't have the intellectual property to gain accreditation. Certainly China have controlled Stage 2 but that section of the EV battery chain is expanding to meet EV/ESS projected demand. However, Stage 1 has been inhibited and the market underestimates producer's timing ability to bring product to market.
Also, there's so much technological change occurring that long term planning is difficult given the Osborne Effect.
The Metso Outotec process (which came to the fore on Tesla Battery Day ... and was a reason for Tesla taking PLL offtake) of extracting Lithium from Spodumene to produce LiOH with a 33% cost reduction, is an option. Now Korea has developed another process with substantial cost savings:
Early days though. Open in Google Chrome browser and use Google Translate.
Interesting to see POSCO Chem is one of the best performing Companies in terms of share price performance YTD, in the EV/ESS battery chain. Also, news of their Stage 3 Cathode expansion to 100ktpa hitting the papers again, after it was announced last November 2020.
I still reckon we will see an expansion in their Stage 2 Chemical Conversion plant aspirations. I feel confident both the PLS and POSCO BODs are secure in their future relationship plans. Perhaps some hardball being played by both teams, behind the scenes?
FWIW, the EV/ESS battery chain Companies have all been seeing red. Our share price performance has held up relatively well through February 2021.
Tesla ATH: US$900 Tesla current share price: US$698.84 Down 22.35% @30Jan21 - Down 12%
ALB ATH: US$188.35 ALB current share price: US$154.62 Down 18% @30Jan21 - Down 13.64%
SQM ATH: US$60.74 SQM current share price: US$56.74 Down 6.59% @30Jan21 - Down 16%
Livent ATH: US$23.99 Livent current share price: US$18.86 Down 21.39% @30Jan21 - Down 24%
PLS ATH: $1.47 PLS current share price: $1.10 Down 25.17% @30Jan21 - Down 37% There can be no doubt it was impacted by the RCF selloff.
GXY ATH: $3.29 GXY current share price: $2.62 Down 20.36% @30Jan21 - Down 18%
ORE ATH: $6.06 ORE current share price: $4.92 Down 18.81% @30Jan21 - Down 17.5%
CATL ATH: CNY425 CATL current share price: CNY347 Down 18.35% @30Jan21 - Down 16.70%
Ganfeng ATH: CNY149.30 Ganfeng current share price: CNY109.75 Down 26.49% @30Jan21 - Down 19.76%
Tianqi ATH: CNY70.13 Tianqi current share price: CNY46.89 Down 33.14% @30Jan21 - Down 14.52%
LG Chem ATH: KRW1,050,000 LG Chem current share price: KRW860,000 Down 18.10% @30Jan21 - Down 12.67%
POSCO Chem ATH(@30Jan21): KRW147,500 POSCO Chem current share price: KRW158,000 Up 7.12% @30Jan21 - Down 8.81%
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