So you see what I am saying. Yes, there are Li battery plants in the US, but I cannot see that they are making the cathode material there. It is not clear. I believe the cathode material, be it, NMC, NCA, LMO, or LFP, is produced in Asia and shipped to the cell plants in the USA. I did find that BASF makes cathode material - maybe some NMC in the US and their NCA is produced in Japan. The cathode raw material can be sourced from wherever. Cobalt from the DRC unless buyers want it ethically sourced then in such case, Australia, Russia, Cuba or others. Nickel from Indonesia, Philippines, Russia or others, Lithium from Argentina, Chile, Australia and few others. Only one active Li mine in the US in Nevada and is operated by Albemarle and I believe it finds its way to Asia to go into the cathode mix. Funny that the Tesla plant is also in Nevada and the lithium mined there still has to go to Asia to be turned into cathode material before it can go into a battery. Enough of this. Maybe I am not 100% right but mostly right - it does not matter. The point is that most of the cathode material is produced in either Japan, Korea or China. Fact is that VW, GM, Ford, Volvo, BMW, Tesla, Rivian and others all have big plans for EV's in the US and to get there more battery cell production will have to take place in the US. Thus more cathode material will be required and from the looks of things, greater tendency to NMC 811 and NCA (higher nickel) requiring hydroxide. Carbonate will still be needed too. Unless the new battery plants either make their own cathode material or cathode plants are built in the US, lithium produced in the US will go to Asia to be converted to the cathode powders then sent back to the cell plants in the US. Future US plants will eventually need lithium sourced from Australia, Chile, Argentina and new projects in the US.
More to the point................
There is a trade war going on right now that will have major repercussions for the battery and cathode industry and it is not the one between China and the US. it is the one between LG Chem and SK Innovation. It is battle for dominance (other than Tesla/Panasonic) for battery production. See the article that just came out a couple of days ago........
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-batteries-southkorea-insight/feuding-korean-firms-risk-disrupting-electric-car-battery-supplies-idUSKBN1Y02J9and further reference on battery manufacturers here.............
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-batteries-factbox/factbox-the-worlds-biggest-electric-vehicle-battery-makers-idUSKBN1Y02JGThey have to resolve this or else VW and others will not reach their EV sales projections. If this was resolved, THEN, I think you would see some real movement in the PLL SP - more so than any announcement they would make as PLL would be a key supplier - INR and others too. IMO.
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