As the world's largest country by population and second-largest economy, China is embarking on a dedicated effort to become a
leader in the emerging electric vehicle market. Hundreds of manufacturing firms in China seek to take advantage of the vast
national investment directed at renewable energy and battery storage technology. This also motivates China to capitalize on metal
resources necessary for launching the electric vehicle industry.
In 2015 Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the "Made in China 2025" initiative, a ten year state-led policy to prepare
China's manufacturing base to be strongly competitive in the future global economy. Sponsoring companies that are making electric
vehicles is a component of this plan. The Wall Street Journal recorded that there were 487 electric car manufacturers in China in
2018.
"This (large number of firms) is inevitable, because whenever there is an emerging technology or emerging industry, there must
be a hundred schools of thought and a hundred flowers blooming," explained Zhou Xuan, general manager of Automagic; a Hangzhou
based electric vehicle designer.
One of these startups, Singulato, attracted foreign interest earlier this year when Itochu Corp, a Japanese trading house,
invested $9 million into the company. The deal is expected to open the door for Singulato to cooperate with Japanese automakers as
they work to keep up with production quotas for electric cars in China. The world's second-largest semiconductor manufacturer,
Intel, also owns a small stake in Singulato.
Another company, Nio, Inc. (NYSE: NIO),
has the ambition of becoming an international competitor to Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) with a focus on sports utility vehicles. In September the startup filed
a $1.8 billion initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. Like Tesla, Nio is working to incorporate autonomous driving
systems into their electric car models.
In 2017, 2.1% of new vehicles sold in China were electric plug-in vehicles, 96% of which were produced domestically. The Wall
Street Journal reported that 777,000 electric vehicles were sold in China in 2017, up from 8,159 in 2011. CNBC reported in 2018
that one quarter of the Chinese car market is expected to be composed of electric vehicles by 2030 while Europe, the next largest
electric vehicle market, will see electric vehicles make up 23% of new vehicles sold. The growth of the electric car market in
China is possible through extensive tax credits and subsidization while Europe is using high fuel taxes and emission standards to
discourage consumers from buying conventional fuel cars.
Chinese vehicle battery companies are also present in the United States. A123 Systems, an energy storage system startup was
founded in 2001 with operations in Michigan, Massachusetts, Germany, and Hangzhou, China. The company focused on technology
developed by MIT and received loans from the Department of Energy to manufacture batteries in the U.S in 2010. In 2012, after
undergoing bankruptcy filings, A123 Systems became a subsidiary of the Wanxiang America Corporation, a subsidiary of the Hangzhou
based Wanxiang Group. Wanxiang is one of the largest auto parts manufacturers in China with a record of acquiring distressed
companies like A123 to establish a $4 billion subsidiary focused on the U.S. auto-parts marketplace.
With the rise of the electric vehicle industry (among other technology related sectors), China seeks to capitalize on raw
materials for battery manufacturing. Lithium and cobalt are two important metal resources for developing batteries. Lithium is
extracted from a brine found below salt-flats while cobalt is extracted from copper and nickel deposits.
South America's "lithium triangle" is estimated to hold 54% of the world's lithium carbonate reserves. In 2016, Chile was the
world's largest exporter of lithium at 62% of global exports, amounting to $494 million worth of total exports. Japan, South Korea,
and China were the three largest importers of Lithium at 22%, 18% and 18% of global imports respectively. South Korea, China, and
Japan were also Chile's largest buyers of lithium.
Don't miss it. Register today.
Lithium's increased production and performance has made it far more accessible to the consumer. In 2010 there were only 400
megawatt hours of lithium ion batteries installed worldwide with a cost of $1,000 per kilowatt hour to the consumer. In 2017 there
were 94.2 gigawatt hours installed with a cost of $209 per kilowatt hour. Capacity for lithium ion batteries grew 235.5 times
larger than its size in 2010 while cost decreased by nearly a factor of five. In China, the price of lithium nearly halved from
$24,750 per tonne in March of 2018 to $13,000 in August due to a surplus of supply by 22,000 tonnes over 277,000 tonnes
demanded.
One third of the world's cobalt reserves can be found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Central Africa. The Congo is
by far the largest exporter of cobalt, accounting for 31% of the world's total exports in 2016 valued at $760 million. Cobalt made
up 17% of the DRC's exports. 99.3% of the Congo's cobalt exports went to China. China was the largest importer of cobalt at 38% of
the world's total imports valued at $953 million. 79% of China's cobalt imports came from the DRC.
According to Bloomberg, eight of the fourteen largest cobalt mines in the DRC are owned by a company based in China, accounting
for roughly half of the DRC's total cobalt production. Similar to lithium, cobalt has declined in price in China due to increased
supply.
Chinese firms have been known to partner with American and European corporations to conduct joint cobalt mining ventures in the
Congo. Phoenix based Freeport-Mcmoran (FCX: NYSE) had considered selling
their Kisanfu exploration project in the DRC as well as their Kokkola refinery in Finland to China Molybdenum Co Ltd earlier in
2018. Another Chinese cobalt firm GEM agreed in March to buy 52,800 tonnes of cobalt from Anglo-Swiss mining company Glencore
(GLEN.LN: LSE).
International mining experts have spoken of the potential for China to vest control over the world's supply of cobalt due to its
focus on the Congo.
"If cobalt falls into the hands of the Chinese, yeah you won't see EVs being produced in Europe etc. They are waking up too late
... I think it's because the car industry has never had a supply chain problem before," said Glencore's chief executive Ivan
Glasenberg.
In 2016 the United States sourced roughly half of its cobalt imports from Europe and 98% of its lithium carbonate imports from
Argentina and Chile. However, the U.S. relies on China for one third of its battery imports, potentially enabling China to
influence the U.S. electric vehicle supply chain.
Technology companies like Tesla have expressed concern for how cobalt is sourced in the Congo. Mining cobalt is extremely labor
intensive in a severely underdeveloped region and the Congolese Government ranks 156 out 176 nations in terms of transparency.
Ongoing armed conflicts and persistent poverty have led to the extensive use of child labor to mine cobalt.
The largest corporate supplier of cobalt in the world is Zhejiang based Huayou which is deeply involved in mining operations in
the DRC. Huayou utilizes its subsidiary Congo Dongfang Mining to source cobalt from the DRC via an assortment of independent
traders at the site of local markets. The company admitted in a Washington Post interview that it had "insufficient awareness of
supply chain management" in regards to child labor in the region.
China's interest in the cobalt market extends to refining mined material for application. Bloomberg listed that China's
downstream cobalt refining companies included Huayou, Jinchuan, and GEM.
For its part, the United States is in competition with China to develop an electric vehicle market. As of 2017 there were
760,000 electric vehicles in circulation in the U.S, ranking the country third behind the European Union and China for the total
number of electric vehicles in its marketplace. The U.S. also imported $375 million worth of cobalt and $79.5 million worth of
lithium in the year 2016.
Want more
content like this? Click here to Subscribe
Permalink
© 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.