But to limit Arcadium's ambitions to north America would be a...

But to limit Arcadium's ambitions to north America would be a strategic misstep by Arcadium in my view, yet another one under Pall Graves.

I am pretty sure that Joe Lowry used to work for Livent back in the day but in any case I have heard him talk about Livent's relatively sorry history. Joe can be a real tosser but he is very perceptive and has been in the industry longer than most anyone. When he started selling lithium to the Japanese it was for calculator batteries and Livent was at the cutting edge and the dominant provider. But they totally missed the EV revolution and allowed themselves to be overtaken by the north Asians. Basically under Pall Graves Livent day dreamed away its advantage. Sure, they are well positioned to regain some of that lost market position but they are only in that position after having fallen back in the pack. It's the old gag of "how do end up with $1m from Pall Graves managing your money? Start off with $10m". Go back and check: Livent has underperformed in the period since 2018 that Graves has run the show.

When it comes to the EV revolution, in the main it is not the yanks, and has not been for some time. Sure there is Tesla but Tesla is your classic American success story where a foreigner comes in and takes advantage of the massive size of the US capital and consumer markets to become hugely successful. I listened to Matt Fernley's podcast the other day and he pointed out that the rest of the world (ex-China, ex-US, ex-EU) will buy a million EVs this year. So while fat bummed, small dicked yanks will vote in some geriatric to lead them into the next generation and continue buying their mini tanks (to compensate for their fat bums and small appendages) the rest of the world will continue on regardless.

Does Arcadium want to be a global player or is it content just to be a regional north American outfit? Australia supplies about half the world's lithium, mainly sending that lithium into places other than the US. Arcadium needs to retain its Australian presence, in my honest opinion.