This confirms Talnode-C as a high performance product, and although we don’t have the full details on pricing, it’s now almost certain that it commands a premium over cheap, lower quality Chinese anode. How much of a premium? We don’t know, but Mark’s previous two webinars point in this direction:
“In the delays that we’ve had with the Swedish permitting system for the mine, it’s allowed us to continue working with different customers, and really find better margins, less flakey, more dedicated, more secure, more strategic off-takers, that not only have good margins, but have a business that fits very well with our material. It doesn’t have to scrape along the bottom of just standard Chinese pricing in the rest of the world. We virtually had time to refine and qualify and validate our products with those customers and that’s gone really well, and will lead to our upcoming announcements in future of our off-take parties, when that’s commercially available to do so.”
“We continued to advance, predominantly being able to focus on customers that we actually want. The margins and terms to be better with, rather than suffering whatever we had to do, if we had to throw everything at it 12 months ago. Healthier for us. We still have existing customers, but new ones are coming in. We can try and choose the split and stack better for Talga. They can be considered quite significantly better terms, certainly better than what we’re seeing other people talk about.”
A reminder that Talga is one of the lowest-cost producers, including from Asia, yet is still producing a high-performance anode that commands a premium. This acts as a moat, setting Talnode-C apart from cheaper Chinese products that can't match its performance. This should insulate us from the effects of the market manipulation and dumping that has hurt many other western producers, which is probably why Talga will be finalising FID shortly - whereas many other western producers are sitting in limbo, unable to secure finance.
“This guy is playing us with the puns. I'd much rather get excited over something of substance.”
@tt2000 after Mark tweeted the Nyobolt wheel.
Is today’s binding agreement enough substance for you?
(20min delay)