Haven't had time to watch it until now ... Anyone who's a shareholder and has not must do.
If you also have not listened / watched the two different fireside chats:
https://bofa.veracast.com/webcasts/bofa/globalagriculture2024/idblLf7j.cfm
https://app.webinar.net/pBZQ4Wk4DoO
View attachment 6052151
So, we have 4 OEMs ( 5 if you include Toyota Tsusho ) who we are supplying to :
* Ford - through our 50% stake with Nemaska -
https://livent.com/press_stories/fo...long-term-lithium-hydroxide-supply-agreement/
* BMW -
https://www.spglobal.com/commodityi...ur285-million-lithium-supply-deal-with-livent)
* General Motors -
https://news.gm.com/newsroom.detail.html/Pages/news/us/en/2022/jul/0726-livent.html
* Tesla - My own 2 cents with Tesla : Having said that ... there is a possibility in the future that this would end given that Tesla is building its own lithium hydroxide plant.
Some things I learned :
Lithium Chloride - There's no market for lithium chloride outside of China.
Butyllithium - Arcadium has 40% market share, stable earnings
Fenix / DLE - was undergoing an expansion.
Other tidbits :
* Sal de Vida
- will be 70 to 80% battery grade ( nothing new )
- can produce lithium chloride to be piped / shipped to Fenix, but probably later down the track ( not immediately ).
* At a lower pricing environment ( like current ), most of the revenue is from legacy Livent.
* At a higher pricing environment, most of the revenue will be from legacy Allkem.
* Lithium hydroxide contracted sells at a premium over spot lithium hydroxide.
The "delays" / "slow-down" that some are talking about here are a result of the merger ( optimise the assets that are nearby to each other ) slow-down the capital spending, and also due to the current pricing environment :
Taken from the Q4 2023 presentation :
View attachment 6052082
From what I understand:
Sal de Vida Stage 1 is so far down the process that it will continue "as-is" to completion. What will probably change is what was previously called "Stage 2" of Sal de Vida ( which was supposed to start this CY 2024 as Stage 1 is about finished already as you can see from the sat pics ) will change so they can somehow optimise / combine what was supposed to be "Stage 2" of Sal de Vida with the planned expansion of Fenix ( Phase 1B ).
Despite the above "slow-downs", the volumes will grow overall:
* Volume growth in Olaroz
* Volume growth in Fenix
* First volumes in Bessemer City USA
* Ramp-up in China for 2024 - Yes, we have hydroxide facility in China.
* The only place where volume will be lower is Mt Cattlin. Needs spod to be sold at $1500/t .. specially now that Mt Cattlin is going underground ( the deeper you go, the higher the cost ).
Compared to some of our peers, the other peers can't afford to slow down because they are single-source / single-asset / single-product / single-region. Arcadium can afford it because we are multiple-source / multiple-assets / multiple-products / multiple regions.
Taken from the Q4 2023 presentations :
View attachment 6052094
View attachment 6052109
So much more to unpack .. but that's just some of the things I thought were interesting.
BTW, do you know we have 5 lithium hydroxide plants around the world ?
OK .. I am off to bed.
(20min delay)
