Vanadium demand and it's price is a funny one, as the overwhelming main use is still in steel, so for a while yet that is the bulk of the demand, but when vanadium gets over a certain price, it gets substituted for a cheaper option in niobium..
This practice really keeps the vanadium price balanced...
If demand is higher than supply, V price goes up. Price goes up too much, then steel makers substitute, and demand goes down again along with the price....
It's pretty evident when you look at the 25 year chart, there is the odd spike around supply or demand events, but mostly price has stayed even.
Lithium on the other hand really has no substitute at this point, and whatever price it continues to climb to, it remains essential for so many modern world uses that demend only increases... It's really a perfect storm for lithium producers..
Vanadium can't really be compared to lithium at all, with only it's use for energy storage being the common factor...
What it does have in it's favour is supply and demand currently are pretty even. So IF VFRB's do get widely adopted for grid storage, it will mean a healthy demand for years to come, and probably a bump in the average price. Combined with not many good vanadium projects scheduled to come online in the next several years, it's not a bad industry to be in.
VFRB's being widely adopted though It is still an IF...
These few mentions of $10 to $12lb being low, and prices will start to skyrocket with VRFB's, it's not really a reality...
A healthy demand from the steel industry, and hopefully vfrb industry continuing to expand, AVL is still in a good place when they are producing.
Getting in early for vanadium being $30lb though (like a lithium price rise), it's a real long shot. VFRB use would need to seriously explode with governments around the world investing billions in them, to the point energy storage use surpasses steel... If it happens, it's a long long way off.
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