Not to be rude but isnt ORE an Australian head officed company but all production is overseas namely Argentina? Hardly an Australian producing lithium company...
Lithium price decline was due largely to oversupply and forecasted oversupply not reduced demand during 2018. Most of the large lithium companies Ganfeng, Albmarle, FMC, SQM are all forecasting significant higher demand but lacking supply more recently and going into 2020 - source: Li Bull podcasting where they speak to board members of these companies.
The reason for this is a lot of companies have lithium deposits, but having a deposit is a far cry from bringing it to production. Most of the projects that are looking at getting into the market will fall. The number 1 reason for this will be because they cannot secure finance for the projects to go ahead.
Why would investment banks finance a commodity with a price history that is quite volatile? Especially after the 2017-2018 boom. Most predict a slow decrease in Li spot price over the next few years. Companies doing so are smart because conservatively it makes sense. If it does go up, its advantageous for them and their earnings.
2 projects look good to potentially make it to production atm and these are in the US:
piedmont lithium and ioneer. 3 other projects in the US are under evaluation so IMO wont be able to secure financing
IMO I wouldnt even bother with Argentina atm because between the government/inflation/taxes its not a secure investment IMO. That an any projects that look great under EBITA wont look as great compared to US projects once you factor in all taxes.
The US want to ensure their own EV supply chain of raw materials through to battery manufacturing. You are crazy not to invest in the US atm.
