Rhiannon Hoyle and Julie Steinberg of The Wall Street Journal report that producers of lithium and nickel are pausing projects as prices collapse and momentum slows for electric-vehicle sales. They write:
When the world’s most valuable lithium company last year announced plans for a $1.3 billion plant in South Carolina, local officials hailed it as transformative for the Palmetto State.
The high-tech project from Charlotte, N.C.-based Albemarle was designed to process different sources of lithium, including from recycled batteries, and serve as a supplier of the critical mineral for South Carolina’s burgeoning electric-vehicle industry.
Less than a year later, those plans have been hobbled by a crash in battery metal prices, undercut by a slowdown in electric-vehicle sales growth in the U.S. and China […]
“Everyone was so excited because [nickel] had found a home” in batteries needed for the EV boom, said Peter Craig, who runs a contracting business that offers garbage removal and other services from an Australian nickel-mining town. He anticipated a sustained boom that now seems less of a sure bet.
“We thought, here’s the future for nickel for the next 25 years. But, you know, nobody can predict these things,” Craig said.
Read more here.