Vintage, certainly some complex scenarios developing with any of what you suggest possible. In all likelihood though I think the initial motivation with SKI involves satisfying the 430 GWh backlog of orders. This number will just keep on increasing as time passes imo. A report today suggests current declared plants in the pipeline will get them to 39 GWh with the two Hungarian plants totalling 17 GWh not 15 as previously reported. As stated in this article...
“The announced projects will boost SK Innovation's output to 39GWh/yr by 2022. But it would still take 11 years to work through the current contract backlog based on that level, leaving aside any new orders. SK Innovation has said it plans to boost capacity to 60GWh/yr by 2022, indicating more plants are in the works.”
So at present their activities revolve around plant construction and resource procurement, a rethink of streamlining the supply chain could come later as you say however in the meantime these are taking priority in this crucial positioning phase.
Interest in AUZ could well be about risk mitigation in addition to a worldwide supply shortfall of these battery minerals.
AUZ Price at posting:
2.3¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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