I had a chance to watch the webinar this morning, and it all looks and feels very positive, with a couple of new slides I haven't seen before.
As we move forward, it seems that we have shaken off the financial concerns that we and the market were worried about over the last few months.
We managed to survive this low capital period with keeping our equity in Viridis in tact, while restructuring various areas of the business to reduce our cashburn and and become a leaner meaner organisation.
The market tends to agree, with the chart looking it strongest in a while, with the TA showing growing support, as chronicled by
@The Disciple… above.
Although we are not out of the financial woods yet, our runway toward the future remains open and clear.
Tim has mentioned our tech spreading to Europe and North America before, but I cant remember him talking about opportunities in Asia as well. I haven't been around as some of you OG's here, so excuse my ignorance if I am off the mark here.
During the last GM, Tim did mention France, Italy and Germany, being interested in our tech, as we were trying to expand it into mainland Europe.
Germany, via VAC is now involved. so one may assume that France and Italy could be next.
Obviously these three countries share established and robust auto industries, whose offerings are struggling to keep up with the proliferation of offerings by China.
Their quest for worldwide auto domination is very obvious and undeniable, with manufacturers like BYD accelerating production rates from 400,000 vehicle per year just 5 years ago, to current production rates of around 4 million units/year.
This has caught the west so offguard, that they are scrambling to develop and deploy competitive offerings, with a protective tariff system to buy time and keep their vehicles at a competitive price point.
And as of 4 days ago on the 1st of October, China now has 100% legal control of its rare earth industry, which it can turn on and off at will. If the tariff war continues, who knows what retaliatory actions China may take, including banning refinement and export of rare earths?
They have done this before....and the west is well aware of possible repercussions.
So if you put all these together, ANY country with a legacy auto industry, will require a secured, competitive supply chain, with a focus on rare earths and decoupling from their reliance on China.
As I stated, Tim has mentioned Germany Italy and France, as well as North America previously, whose legacy manufacturers will need these independant and secure supply chains....but now he is mentioning Asia.
Who in Asia has a legacy auto industry? Korea and Japan....
Korea has been more nimble and proactive with the pivot to EV's, but Japan is struggling.
Years of denial and chasing alternate technologies by in particular Honda and Toyota, have left them years behind the Chinese.
The Japanese have seen the error of their ways and are now investing billions to catch up.
But as this investment accelerates into EV's and their supply chain, so does the souring political environment between China and Japan.
Territory disputes in the South China sea, and more recently the single state Taiwan unification strategy, has damaged the relationship and left Japan at odds with China.
And last time these disputes came to a head, China banned rare earth exports to Japan as the punishment.
Japan is tied to the US, so will continue to push the US's narrative, to keep Taiwan independant and secure microchip supply.
Over the last few decades, Taiwan has monopolised the microchip sector, and used it as defence strategy to maintain some semblance of independance and maintain support from the west to maintain its sovereignty.
And could you imagine if China took Taiwan, and then controlled microchips, rare earths and most of the critical mineral supply chain?
Where would that leave the west?
Where would that leave EV and technology sectors, and where would that leave military contractors and the defence sectors?
In a very precarious and fragile position, with China having the ability to weaponise and totally control the tech supply chain.
This is a long winded way of stating Japan is stuffed ....and faces the very real possibility of once again losing its rare earth supply...and will have to ASAP, find a way to secure supply of rare earths, amongst other critical materials.
So when Tim mentions Asia, I reckon we have a new market that we could deliver a rare earth secure supply solution to, and it need to be done as soon as possible.
Uk, Germany, Italy, France, Brazil, the US/Canada and now possibly Japan.
This is the future for this company, and I can see our tech being rolled far and wide.
To our resident downrampers , yes there is room for many players in this space.
And Hopefully together, we can institute a revolutionary, meaningful and sustainable shift away from the entrenched and established supply chain so heavily dominated by China.
Fortunately, we are at the forefront of this shift.....
Good luck everyone.
(20min delay)