POS-PBT Joint Venture

LGE is a customer and large shareholder in QPM who plan to use a direct nickel process to create pre-cursor and then battery chemicals, so maybe they could be interested also in the POS-PBT Kalgoorlie plant.....  especially with this announcement:

LG Energy Solution to Supply Cylindrical Batteries for Isuzu Electric Trucks

LG Energy Solution has penetrated the Japanese market, a stronghold of Panasonic which supplies batteries to Tesla. It signed a contract to supply cylindrical batteries for electric trucks of Isuzu, Japan’s largest commercial vehicle company.

The contract is worth about one trillion won. LG Energy Solution is reportedly working on a project to supply batteries to electric trucks that Isuzu will produce starting next year. The company supply cylindrical batteries for Isuzu’s Elf electric vehicle model for four years from 2023.

Isuzu is Japan’s largest commercial vehicle company. It enjoyed a 33 percent market share in Japan as of last year, but it has not yet produced electric trucks.The Elf Truck, the flagship model of Isuzu, is a popular model that ranks first in sales in the cap over-type truck sector in the North American market.

The model has been sold in Korea since 2017. Isuzu plans to start producing Elf electric trucks from next year and produce 10,000 units including hybrid trucks a year by 2030.LG Energy Solution is expanding its business in Japan’s electric vehicle market, which is home to lithium-ion batteries. Following deals to supply batteries to Japanese automakers such as Nissan and Honda, it has expanded its customers to Isuzu.In particular, cylindrical batteries are the main product of Panasonic, Japan’s leading battery manufacturer.

LG Energy Solution satisfied picky Japanese automakers.Battery industry insiders say that Japanese automakers are paying attention to the capabilities of LG Energy Solution which has a stable production scale, at a time when Panasonic lukewarm about expanding production facilities is supplying most of its cylindrical batteries to Tesla.