Late rally pulls miners into green
A late rally pulled the ASX Materials sector to a 0.28% gain, with
South32 leading the way at the big end of town after
a big jump in aluminium prices overnight.
The ASX 200 lifted 0.59% to end the day in positive territory after spending much of the day underwater.
High spodumene and lithium chemical prices are also spurring interest in mid-cap lithium stocks.
AVZ Minerals, which owns the monstrous Manono project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was up 6.21%
Core Lithium, which will open its Finniss lithium mine in the Northern Territory towards the end of 2022, was 4.67% higher while US-focused
Ioneer rose 4.69% to 67c.
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Shares of Chinese EV makers rise after upbeat January deliveries
Shares of Chinese electric-vehicle makers jumped in Hong Kong as trading resumed after the Lunar New Year holiday, following upbeat January deliveries data.
EV stocks have been pressured amid Beijing’s moves to wean the industry off incentives.
Some subsidies for EVs were cut by 30% at the beginning of this year, and the overall incentive program will end in 2023, according to a joint ministry notice released at the end of December.
www.marketwatch.com
Norway’s stunning new EV numbers: 84% of new car sales in January all electric
Official numbers published this week have revealed that 83.7% of all new cars sold across Norway in January were electric vehicles, with 19 of the top 20 vehicles coming with a cable.
With only 175 petrol engine vehicles registered in January and 212 diesel engine vehicles, non-electrified ICE vehicles accounted for only 4.8% of new vehicles registered in Norway during January.
The bestselling car in Norway for January was the Audi Q4 E-tron with a total of 643 models delivered.
Of the top 20 models registered through January – ranging from the 643 Audi Q4 E-trons to the 125 Volkswagen ID.3s –
only one vehicle was not an electric vehicle, the Toyota Rav4, which saw a total of 271 registrations in January.
“This is a fantastic start to the new year,”
said Christina Bu, secretary general of the Norwegian Electric Car Association. “Norwegian electric car success shows the way internationally, but it does not happen by itself.”
Importantly, electric vehicles benefited greatly in January from the fact that the Norwegian Government has yet to impose a VAT on new EVs.
Conversely, whereas in 2021 rechargeable vehicles competed with EVs, changes in Norway’s budget for 2022 reducing the tax benefit for hybrids saw the share of January hybrid sales fall from 19% in January 2021 to only 6.6% in January 2022.
“There is reason to believe that consumers who last year considered buying a rechargeable hybrid, now choose to buy a zero-emission car,” said Christina Bu.
“If VAT had been phased in on electric cars already this year, we probably would not have seen these sales figures.
“The combination of continued VAT exemption for electric cars and increased taxes on polluting cars gives a head start on the new year.
“It is a political responsibility to ensure that electric cars win the competition in the new car market. If the government eventually intends to phase in VAT on electric cars, this must be done very carefully and the strategy must be that new polluting cars also become more expensive.”
https://thedriven.io/
One in three Volvo sales globally in January were electrified
Swedish automotive giant Volvo Cars reported this week that of the 47,561 cars the company sold across the globe in January 2022, nearly 32% were electrified to some degree, with sales of fully electric cars more than doubling compared with January 2021.
Volvo Cars
reported sales of 47,561 for January 2022, a decline of 20.2% compared to January 2021, highlighting a trend across the industry.
However, despite lacklustre sales overall, Volvo Cars saw continued demand for its electrified models, with cars built on the company’s Recharge line-up of cars with a fully electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain accounting for 31.7% of all sales.
Sales of fully electric cars during January were similarly up, more than doubling the number sold during January 2021 and accounting for 6.6% of total sales for the month.
https://thedriven.io/
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Food for thought on the Road to Mining the Monster of Manono
Fingers Crossed
Frank
