"Wish we see more big funds focus on actually creating wealth by helping the process rather than betting on them long or short."
100% agreed. That's the key. The shorters-BEOT-Someone group was confortable about LTR so far. Those funds were not buying much LTR shares, but now after the production starts they will most probably start buying a lot because there is not many pure lithium play around for them to buy other than LTR and PLS.
As we all know AusSuper bought 8% plus PLS shares. AusSuper was the biggest supporter of PLS when it was struggling in 2021.
AusSuper just recently increased its PLS holding to ~8.35% as you may know.
I am quite confident that AusSuper will start buying LTR shares after the production started because the related fund manager Luke Smith is very smart man and he knows the lithium supply chain better than any of those funds managers and their analysts. I am aware and following all of his moves lithium market in last 6 years. He did an excellent job for his AusSuper fund as its manager. I am nearly sure he is watching everything about LTR because I know his investment style.
Patiently waiting and holding tight to see those days. Coming soon.
AustralianSuper, the nation’s largest industry superannuation fund, will more than double its investments in lithium over the next three years to cash in on the energy transition and new trade routes forged by the US-China trade war.
The $315 billion AusSuper is also poised to deploy more capital in critical minerals over the next five years through investments in Australia, Africa, and North and South America, senior portfolio manager Luke Smith told The Australian Financial Review. It represents the largest bet on lithium alone by a pension fund investor.
“We have invested a bit over $1 billion in lithium,” Mr Smith said, referring to AusSuper’s 8 per cent stake in Pilbara Minerals by way of example.
“We anticipate our lithium holdings in the sector to grow over the next three years to north of $2 billion,” he predicted ahead of the Financial Review Mining Summit, to be held in Perth on Wednesday.
The comments are the first time AusSuper has publicly revealed the next phase of its critical minerals ambition. Its planned investment in lithium will take the fund’s portfolio of critical mineral investments to at least $14 billion over the next three years. Its current portfolio – which straddles copper, nickel and graphite and holdings such as BHP – is valued at $12 billion.
“We’re building out investments in that space for the next five years-plus,” the fund manager said. “The energy transition is absolutely a great thematic to invest in.”
These plans will propel the industry fund to become one of the world’s largest investors in critical minerals as the world rushes to decarbonise and meet the Paris climate targets.While prices for green metals slumped over the past year, long-term investment is vital to avoid projected demand outpacing supply, according to a report last week from the International Energy Agency. It found lithium supply will meet only half of global demand by 2035, while copper supplies will fill just over two-thirds of demand spanning electric vehicles, batteries, data centres and renewable energy infrastructure.
Trade war of subsidies
But the capital to boost the supply of these resources essential to economic and national security has been complicated by the US-China trade war. The US and its allies, including Australia, are seeking to dilute China’s dominance over producing and processing critical minerals, fearing Beijing could weaponise its market power by cutting off supply.
They are throwing taxpayer cash at miners and refiners central to non-Chinese global critical minerals supply chains. Export credit agencies and fiscal departments are shelling out grants and loans, which Mr Smith said were vital for bringing the next wave of mines into production.
(20min delay)