I read an interesting interpretation about China's current increased imports of raw materials..... that it's a direct response to the Fed's money printing policy (and perhaps also a way for China to reduce their UST's). In other words they are ridding themselves of $US's by spending on hard assets.
The author of the article is a long standing gold bug and someone I think is a bit of a nut.... but on this occasion I think it's worth a bit of thought. If it's a correct analysis it signifies that China is moving even further away from $US dependence. It also infers that China has a long term view on the value of the $US i.e. it's going to lose significant value.
Just my 2 cents worth on the lithium market.
In the last couple of years there's been a lot of activity building manufacturing capacity to supply the EV demand (which has been slow to grow)... but the fact is that capacity nonetheless has to now secure supply chains. The market might be immature but it's one of the few growth options and even in a low demand environment it's set to expand. Add to that the robust regulatory push happening in Europe phasing out IC vehicles and there are real reasons why the EV related commodities should start to improve in price going forward.
