2017 certainly looks to be full of heat for lithium in general eh? Not really any new supply coming on line at all but there is some new demand via battery factories, ( 2H 2017? I'd have to guess, but we can all probably hunt around for details on that.
I know we aren't producing yet but it's good to have a couple of irons in the fire, if sileach proves itself further with the 4% Li2O spodumene challenge from PLS feedstock then there should be some interest shown in the SP.
If the market is slow to show interest in that, greenbushes could well lure them in, even if only as a speculative buy in consideration of the supply/demand picture through 2018-2019.
2019 should see new supply coming through from a number of players, but the growing demand may well take care of that, Tianqi for example at the moment is having fun trying to get hold of feedstock for some reason.
I believe they are currently still producing so they obviously stockpiled some material.
That in itself is interesting as it shows that China's history of stockpiling in 'secret' is continuing, and that no matter how high prices rise the gambler in the average person or the desire for control of the CCP members will most likely see that stockpiling continue.
The desire to have a handle on pricing, if only to try to deny competitors access to resources, cough cough America*, isn't limited to lithium, it's a general strategy employed at the state level, whether it's oil or gas or now lithium.
The tactic involved is to buy up or lock up through contracts resources and/or players that own the tenements the resources sit under.
In talking about this I just point out that supply/demand fundamentals don't actuslly matter all that much when there's at least two groups squabbling over a commodity for an existential reason, ie:nor the purposes of strengthening position or projecting one's power.
( all we need now is to see a couple lithium battery pack military vehicles emerge and the heat will be so truly on that the whole market could well go berserk, until it finds a natural equilibrium- Russia for one has been developing a range of small tank type vehicles which if not in theirs, in other designs may well use electric motors battery for their low noise. The IDF is coming up with similar concepts, and Israel is I think a strong tech exporter ).
Long story short, we are just at the start of this long story and there is 1/4 of the world's population plus a couple others is lining up against the world's only true superpower and it's allies for control of this 'new gasoline', as Goldman Sachs has called lithium.
LIT Price at posting:
16.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
