Chip shortage message When your auto industry is set back in production because of a chip shortage, clearly the impact of reliance on foreign supplies is more writing on the wall and a message to manufactuers and governments. This chip thing along with all similar foreign supplied products like cobalt, cannot possibly go unnoticed at every level of the supply chains related to electrification. Both US and Canadian ( EU and some Asian countries ) have started a pact with these CMs.
what we see with this chip issue can and likely will happen in the cobalt and RE market.... in a previous post there was a good comment about the great disconnect between miners and manufactuers ...like chip suppliers and automakers ....how is it possible in this day and age that such a disconnect could have happened such that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be impacted because of this chip shortage? Biden admin and others have thier job plans blindsided by some minuscule chip situation which was ( if your in the industry ) very pridictable.
We would be fools ( and currently look like it) if we continue down the same road with reliance on foreign suppliers. FT is not the end all but it certainly is a very viable part of a bigger solution type situation and leads me to believe that a Big Bang type theory could be on the door step of battery metals and REs when the so called disconnect issue ( if it's real) actually rears it's head for what it is.
if the only source for Canadian or USA cobalt processing is for the most part, reliant on DRC and China, then we are headed down the same path of risk and is a direction that I think is coming to and end.
While we at FT have our historical issues .....it's not just a matter of FT sh----- and getting of the pot, it's also our political leadership, manufactuers etc doing the same .....and they appear to be doing that if what we read is true. Serriously how many NA primary cobalt suppliers are ready for development ? Can we continue to rely on the cobalt produced as a by product of nickel and coppper etc .....that answer is simple ...no....future demand is clear, geopolitical issues are clear ...something has to break and we have a great opportunity with the Nico deposit to be part of that.
our future is in the hands of government and manufactuers who seem fine with billions into auto and battery plants but appear to continue to miss out on the disconnect problem with miners.....PDAC will be interesting on the battery / electrification metals issue and may bring more exposure to us....yes let's hope.