I've seen a few of the comments regarding whether to hold back on P1000 or to rush P1000 and consider going beyond. Here is my humble opinion.
We have already invested considerable monies into the early works and long lead items for P1000. I am also not a big fan of halting construction once started because you incur demobilization fees, remobilization fees when you want to restart, and a considerable amount of construction materials will rust or otherwise decay while exposed to the elements. In addition, I believe the reason there has been a rush to proceed on P1000 is that, as was alluded to in the AGM Presentation, PLS appears to be in discussions with more than one potential partner to find the pick of the lot for a POSCO JV-style partnership which is slated to take 300 ktpa of SC6 (or SC5.3, or whatever we'll be producing in two years, once the P1000 modifications are completed).
Other than P1000, however, I am not of the mindset that we should be spending money just because we have it in the bank. We've already cast the dice on P1000, but, though I expect that the inevitable swing of the commodity price pendulum will start soon, we need to be prepared for the possibility the GS and other BEOT firms might actually get their Li price predictions correct, for once (I still say GS uses their predictions for marketing purposes, and couldn't actually predict the value of a one dollar bill), and should not take on additional spending commitments.
When considering "our next move," please keep in mind, we have to complete P1000, we are just starting construction of the Calix JV plant, we have CAPEX costs associated with Train 2 at the POSCO JV, and we are probably about a year away from reaching the point where we have to buy-in to the other 12% (from 18% to 30%) of the POSCO JV. We have plenty to spend on without taking on new projects, and we still have no idea what the next partnership might entail.
Best regards to all, and have a nice weekend.
Expand
(20min delay)