Well, Epanko is really not in our hands at the moment and that's probably quite in Andrew's interest, because otherwise he wouldn't be able to distract himself with all the events and presentations but would have to take care of orders for constructions and supply contracts.
Let's not talk about Epanko, the company has been working on that for almost 10 years.
Let's talk about Sweden, Andrew announced it so great in 2021 that they had reserved a plot of land there, but since then not much has happened and if you really ask around, then you know that it is not due to the city of Skelefftea but to Ecograf that nothing has happened since then.
Why is there no further work being done there?
But even more obvious is the incompetence at Kwinana, millions were spent to get the approvals and do the studies. All paid for by shareholder money (thanks again to Allianz who bought dozens of shares at AUD 0.6 and still held 8.6 million shares at the end of 2022). Then when they finally got the approvals, they just put the whole project on hold, millions of (ex-)shareholder money burned!!!!
Even if you ask around here, Andrew and his team did not send any message to the Kwinana Council in the months after, why suddenly there is no more progress and nothing happens. If I were the Australian German HK or any other stakeholder in Kwinana I would be more than pissed off, but maybe they at least know the real reason why Kwinana is not further favored.
My guess is that all interested parties like Posco after the introduction of the IRA, are only interested in productions within the USA. That being said, the Kwinana location was a logistical nightmare from the start, but at least they could have started a project and brought in cash flow.
I don't know how efficient German Trade and Invest (GTAI) is, but by now they should have found a location for BAM production in Germany, but again they seem to be too dependent on partners like Volkswagen and Northvolt. The hottest trace here seems to lead to the USA with Posco + Asian battery manufacturers. Too bad Sweden and Northvolt looked so juicy and promising in early 2021.
Don't get me wrong, we have the same goal (2 dollars
), but with a more efficient and probably more competent management we would already be much further advanced, what especially Kwinana/Sweden/Germany show.
Cheers to better days!
(20min delay)