I have to agree with SAAB02, PLS made a loss as stated on their business earning update couple of days ago. Contributed by both lower market price of lithium hydorixde monohydrate and also their CAPEX in new growth platform - the POSCO JV (PPLS) and mid-stream demonstration plant project.
But you need to also read through the entire document and look at what the managing director/CEO stated: "Beyond our core business, we advanced our chemicals strategy to increase our exposure to value-added battery chemicals while further diversifying our supply chain. During the period, the PPLS JV and Midstream Demonstration Plant project progressed through their ramp-up and development phases respectively. These projects continue to reflect the effects of current lower market pricing, development costs or ramp up costs as shown in the expected results. We remain very positive about the long-term potential of these strategic investments and both projects offer a staged investment pathway for future scale-up at PLS’ discretion."
So the take away message is (1) the current lithium market price is low (even unprofitable for most miners), (2) they still anticipate an increase demand in the future, and therefore (3) continue capex for future demand is still needed. All of this will cause a loss of income and reduction of shareholder's wealth in the short term. Again, this is also the facts that we have to face.
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