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On Jan 29, 2018 Exane BNP Paribas issued a research report titled “Usain Cobalt”. Excerpts: “The key takeaway from battery makers and precursor material providers in China is that lithium-ion NMC is the only fully recognized and approved technology in China for the years to come. Solid-state or fuel cells are seen as alternatives that may take another decade or two to get approved and demonstrate their reliability.” “As long as the prevailing technology is NMC, we believe that securing some supply agreement in a commodity as critically as important and tight as cobalt will be a source of competitive advantage for battery makers and OEMs alike.” | | | | Cobalt | | | | Metal Bulletin - January 29, 2018 Tight supplies and trader buying continued to push spot cobalt prices higher in the week ended Friday January 26, but currency moves... High-grade cobalt prices rose to $37.20-38.40 per lb, in-warehouse on Friday…Consistent demand has meant that market participants are confident that cobalt prices will remain underpinned. “For all the noise and saying prices can’t go higher, it wasn’t happening at $18 [per lb], and demand hasn’t been destroyed at these levels either,” a fifth trader said. …“For investors, it looks like sub-$40 per lb is still a good bet,” the first trader said. | | | | | EVs | | | | Yahoo Finance UK - January 30, 2018 Oil giant BP is to trial mobile charging points for electric vehicles at its UK forecourts this year after investing five million US... 2018 as it looks to tap into the growing demand for electric-powered cars. Tufan Erginbilgic, chief executive of BP’s downstream division, BP said it would roll out FreeWire’s mobile rapid chargers across a number of petrol stations in the UK and Europe throughout 2018 as it looks to tap into the growing demand for electric-powered cars…The deal comes as Britain’s Committee on Climate Change has said 60% of new cars and vans must be electric by 2030 to meet carbon targets cost-effectively…The most recent figures showed that alternatively fuelled vehicles had a 4.7% share of the new car market last year, up from 3.3% in 2016. | | Asahi Kasei Corporation - January 30, 2018 Asahi Kasei Honorary Fellow Dr. Akira Yoshino has been chosen for the 2018 Japan Prize, awarded by the Japan Prize Foundation, in the field of Resources, Energy, Environment and Social Infrastructure, in recognition of his significant contributions to the development of the lithium-ion battery (LIB). Yoshino, a 70-year-old honorary fellow at Asahi Kasei Corp., was recognized for his achievements…that enabled the mobile revolution in the early 1990s, the Japan Prize Foundation said…In the early 1980s, Yoshino demonstrated lithium ion batteries' capability by using lithium cobalt oxide for the cathode and a carbon-based material for the anode, enabling lithium ions to travel between the two ends and resulting in a battery with high voltage, high energy density and a long life, according to the foundation. | | Uganda Today - January 30, 2018 German car maker eyes nation€™s e-mobility Kampala, Uganda | AGENCIES | If everything goes according to plan, the first car “made in... electric car maker by 2025. To achieve this, the company needs one major component: cobalt. And the biggest reserves of the rare metal can If everything runs as planned, Rwanda will also soon witness the introduction of the first electric cars on its roads. “In developing countries like Rwanda, we often skip development steps,” Sch¤fer said. “We’ll start with what we have already announced. But of course we’re already looking at the next phase and I think that this should be easy to implement in a country like Rwanda and a city like Kigali.” Rwanda has a good network of roads and, due to its small size, setting up charging stations across the country should not be a problem…Electric cars also mark a major change within VW itself. The carmaker plans to invest 34 billion euros in the development of electric cars in the next five years. It hopes to become the leading electric car maker by 2025…To achieve this, the company needs one major component: cobalt. And the biggest reserves of the rare metal can be found in Rwanda’s neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which produces 60 percent of the world’s cobalt…The batteries for electric car require much more cobalt than, for instance, smartphones. For Armistead, this means a leading carmaker like Volkswagen should take responsibility for this. “If they want to become the major player in e-vehicle production, they need to position themselves as a leader in terms of their cobalt sourcing practices,” she says. “It is really paramount that the electric vehicle revolution is not built of the backs of children and adults in hazardous conditions in the DRC,” she added. | | Unknown - January 30, 2018 Carmaker is seeking to access more stocks of the key electric car battery raw Tesla is in talks with Chile’s largest lithium producer SQM about investing in supplies of the key battery material, as it ramps up production of its first mass-market electric car...If successful, the deal would mark Tesla’s first foray into securing battery raw materials, which have soared in price due to the growing popularity of electric cars…Global carmakers are starting to lock in supplies of raw materials as they scale up production of electric cars to meet ambitious targets. This month, Toyota’s trading arm agreed to buy a 15 per cent stake in Orocobre, which produces lithium in Argentina. | | | | |