General Discussions, page-21621

If we are to assume that China's disregard for environmental costs explains why prices haven't risen as much as they should have by now then, its up to 'commerce' to catch them out. Unlike lithium, China's dominance and opaque accountability means that they control the graphite sector regardless.

Therefore, maybe it is only through the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investment community that can ultimately catch China out and disrupt their BS business modelling and force them to a more level playing field, i.e, the transparency of ESG measuring and reporting will make it hard for them to retain credibility.

In a pre Covid-19 trading environment, OECD countries are complicated by the fact that everyone has to, with some degree, deal with basket-case countries to effectively compete, regardless of their lack of ESG credentials. Therefore, overlooking parts of the supply chain was convenient, however, through the disruption of Covid-19, companies began to seek 'on-shoring' and 'near-shoring' methods to their procurement of goods. This meant that they needed to establish new supply chains (Australia) and decouple from untrusted ones. This is not as easy as it may first appear and takes time for every piece of the puzzle to delicately extract itself and come together in a new way.

The great news for us is that things seem to be playing out nicely. The recent US-Japan trade deal appeases Japan's concerns over the US Inflation Reduction Act and effectively means that Japanese companies, like Honda, can continue to invest with confidence in ASEAN countries. Likewise, South Korea is heavily linked to ASEAN, so if their goverment can make a similar deal, it may also be great news for us.

My thoughts are that, Hanwa have found a way and have now made a decisive and immediate move. Their decision to have an office in Australia is a clear sign that they see Renascor (Australia) as a key component to their customer's global strategy. BTW, on the same day, Hanwa also announced that they established a new company in the Philippines: see PDF

Untangling the supply chain is the prerogative of multinationals. All we can do as suppliers is put our hand up and say we're here and ready to produce. Even though there is no one else, you need not take anything for granted.

Something seems to be materialising, and at the multinaltional level is where we it needs to occur.

Bottom line is we're still on track!

All IMO, DYOR GLTA(Patient)H