The rhetoric from and about Albermarle and SQM's capability to expand production is designed to make new projects more difficult to get off the ground IMO.
If there is a potential low cost producer ready to crank up output, then financing a greenfields project with debt is going to be that much more difficult and expensive.
The fly in the ointment is China. They are less driven by the immediate commercial drivers of a project, and ensuring quick returns. The strategic longer term vision of the Chinese is leading them to capture guaranteed supply of commodities that they feel will ensure their long term prosperity.
I am not saying that Chinese companies are not concerned with profitable investments, just that their capital is a little more patient than most in the West.
These drivers will play out over the next few years and lead to the J.P Morgan paradigm of stocks "Fluctuating".
I believe strongly in the Lithium future, but it is unlikely to be for the faint hearted.
ORE Price at posting:
$5.26 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held