I've been out all day again and nearly fell of my chair when I read
@Normandy7 post.
As most of you know, I've been speculating this might happen. I do believe someone (I know who
) had a crack at me for speculating saying I had no idea what the CCP would do. Ignoring the blow-in, there are a few major points everybody is missing.
The Chinese Global Times from Normanby's posts mentions spherical and the article from CNBC also mentions synthetic. China manufactures 100% of natural SPG. No one can build a battery using natural AAM without China's permission via an export permit from their Chinese supplier. They also manufacture 90% of synthetic SPG/AAM. Think about the ramifications globally.
If this doesn't spur the DOE to loan or grant would be better, $1B to build a 100kt plant at Vidalia, nothing will. Same for Europe. SYR is the only company ex-China who has built a AAM plant at scale.
As I've said before, the reason it took 18 months to build is because SYR only built one module. The concreters and the people who built the buildings had to wait 3-4 months for the ground preparation to be done. The people who installed the equipment had to wait another 3-4 months for the slabs to be put down and the building erected etc etc.
To go to 100kt they have to build another 8 modules. The ground preparation people can move straight to the 2nd module of 8 they need to prepare after they finish the first, which means the concreters and the people who built the buildings can move straight to the 2nd module after building the 1st without having to wait 3-4 months. By the time the ground preparation people move on to the 4th module of 8, no one has to wait for anybody. Everybody just moves on to the next. Which means by then, a module will be completed every 3-4 months. The only module to take 18 months will be the 1st of 8.
I'm sure the Governors of Louisiana and Mississippi would love to have >400 construction workers permanently on site for 3-4 years and 200-300 (maybe more) permanent Vidalia workers on good wages living in their communities of Vidalia and Natchez. It would be an economic boon for the area. As I intermated in a recent post, the area isn't exactly economically blessed.
My only concern is who builds the mills and shaping machines.
This will also spur the other ex-China AAM producers just starting to go harder and bigger. SYR might be selling all their spare fines to ex-China parties earlier than they thought possible. Expanding Balama from 350kt to 700kt is now a distinct possibility.
(20min delay)