You are spot on @WhatiFOnly, China wanted to control the price so it could build cheap cars for its own country and economy and to lessen its dependency on oil and reduce smog in its major cities. If as a by-product it managed to dominate the world EV market then that was a bonus. I think they were expecting Western tariffs and push backs and probably wondered why it took us so long to react. Unfortunately that has always been their criticism of democracy: too many elections and it takes too long to get things done. As @anatol has been saying it now suits them to allow the lithium price to come back up a little as they do not want world wide supply to be restrained by uncommercial lithium prices. They now have the top EV position and a more realistic pricing model will suit them and allow for tariffs etc to be lifted. They have been more successful than they imagined. It is a patience game now and I agree the lithium price will rebalance, hopefully soon and the Chinese won't mind that.
LTR Price at posting:
97.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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