worth a the 2 and 1/2 min watch
or read this transcript.
(CNBC) Thespot prices for lithium because you know some people are suggesting that it's alittle bit of price depression coming through via the way of China but is itrealistically just a fundamental supply demand issue or do you think there's otherfactors in play right now?
(KP) I think it's a supply ofdemand and we've had prices at virio of his levels. As you know so there arethree price benchmarks that matter: there's lithium carbonate - which you justreferred to; there's lithium hydroxide - the product we intend to make in theU.S; and there's spodumene concentrate which is one of the key feedstocks.Spodumene prices are down probably 40%, but still up eight or eight or ninetimes from where they were two years ago. Lithium hydroxide prices in the low40s are down 50%, but still up three or four times from where they were twoyears ago. So, pricing is still very strong. My expectation is the pricing willmoderate here and plateau, and then begin to recover again. I'm very bullish onpricing over the medium term
(CNBC) Andthe reason why I ask you that as well and you did mention spodumene is you know,you must know of what Pilbara minerals over there in Australia - I'm a littlebit of Home bias is doing in terms of constructing their own market and I know youhave a lot of off-take commitments but as you ramp up production as you look atother means of production in terms of other sites that you are looking todevelop out, is that something that you'd consider - taking control over yourown production in terms of selling it into a market - directly to suppliersrather than going through the agreed upon price via LME or via any other kindof metric?
(KP) Yeah what Pilbara did wasinteresting. Starting a year or so ago they started to auction some of their Spodumene.They're a leader. They're a big producer. So, they've got long-term contractswith several customers but they have excess - they had excess production atleast – and they were able to sell that via auctions directly, which is reallyinteresting. It brought a lot of clarity to the market really. It led to, I thinkin terms of understanding how scarce spodumene was and how much demand it wasfor it. More recently, what they did rather than auction the spodumene, they'vearranged to have their material tolled by a Chinese converter. So, Pilbara willtake back the lithium hydroxide. They'll then settle that into the market. That'san interesting strategy. That's something we do think about. We're not going todo that in the near term, but we hope to do that in the medium term as we're stillbuilding our own lithium hydroxide conversion capacity. We want to we want toget to that end market where we're producing the value-added chemical that thecar companies and battery companies need.
Now that's an interesting close. Medium term use a Chinese converter to toll OTA SC into LiOH. Think about it. So we have "excess spodumene" from NAL - no not really. So that can only mean Ewoyaa right - until TLP #1 is built.
So I wonder .... initial Ewoyaa SC to Chinese Converter to be tolled to LiOH and then - since its already in China - offer (or contract to) Korean, Japanese or Chinese CAM plants. Hmmm. Possibilities are endless.
And now for something silly ... Jim Cramer on this "LIghtning round" a couple of days ago said "Don't Buy, Don't Buy Piedmont Lithium".
Many believe a "Contra" Jiim Cramer strategy is a money maker.
Takes all kinds to make a market.
(20min delay)