Yes
@XingChow, for a while now, they have been mentioning the US.
Tim actually did mention there had been various discussions with private equity in the US.
I am unclear as to how serious or far along these discussions are, then at the AGM they present a slide
that graphically depicts the breakdown of costs in Belfast...yes we know about that...
The costs in Brazil....yes we know plans are accelerating very rapidly there....
But now they have looked at power, labour and re-agent costs in the US....as well....um.....that's new....
And if they are actually analysing the costs to that level, in my opinion there's something driving it, which
may lead to an announcement out of left field with a US based plant.
The timing could not be better, with Trump spruiking a 25% import tariff on any product to the US.
There are obviously far and wide reaching implications to this policy, so it may never see the light of day.
But Whether this comes to fruition or not, it may still push the yanks to start thinking about investing at home and producing more domestic product, which could include us.
I still think if someone could pitch our strategy directly to Trump, he would jump at it. He is a businessman after all...
Trump- What, you guys can deliver us a full suite of rare earths and cut out the Chinese, who have nationalised and have total control of the rare earth market???
And you'll use our old wind turbines, and hard drives and scrap, of which we have more than I can count....and you don't need a mine, or environmental permits....and you can build it for a paltry 100m on an industrial estate...and that can help our defence contractors...and our OEM's...and Elon.....and they can do it in 18months??
Ill cut you the cheque myself....but I want it done it 12 months.....
Brett- Done....This may just be a pipe dream playing in my head, but this is the potential in the US.
DOD, DOE, State money, VC, private equity, ESG funds, ...etc...etc...the amount of money over there is staggering, you just need the right lobbyist to talk to the right people. It is almost worth contracting someone over there to get it done.
Anyway, enough of the fantasies, however, there is very real potential there and one day, just maybe one day we'll wake up to an announcement that we have partnered up in the US.
Good luck everyone...
BTW...they have mentioned Asia a few times too.....
(20min delay)