Tesla signs long-term lithium hydroxide supply deal with China’s Yahua Fred Lambert - Dec. 29th 2020 9:16 am ET https://electrek.co/2020/12/29/tesla-signs-long-term-lithium-hydroxide-supply-deal-china-yahua/ Tesla has signed a long-term lithium hydroxide supply deal with China’s Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group, according to the latter. The Chinese group disclosed the 5-year supply agreement in a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange today. Reuters reports: “Yahua, which is based in southwest China’s Sichuan province, did not provide tonnage figures but, in a filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, put the total value of the contract at $630-880 million over 2021-25.” Lithium hydroxide is used in the production of battery cells. Tesla recently announced its plan to produce its own battery cells, but the automaker has also been securing lithium supply for its battery manufacturers prior to planning to build its own batteries. Back in 2018, the automaker signed a 3-year supply agreement China’s Ganfeng Lithium with a possible 3-year extension. This new supply deal with Yahua is only one of many that Tesla signed as it attempts to secure large quantities of lithium to support its ambitious growth plans. The automaker also previously secured a deal to get lithium from Australia and signed a lithium supply agreement with a North Carolina mining project that is still in development. On top of those supply agreements, Tesla also recently announced plans to mine lithium itself starting with claims on 10,000 acres that they acquired in Nevada earlier this year. The company is developing its own extraction technique, but Tesla is expected to still heavily rely on lithium suppliers long-term. With its new 4680 battery cells, Tesla is planning to achieve several terawatt-hours of battery capacity production per year by the end of the decade. This would require a massive increase in lithium production, as well as other critical resources, like nickel.
Huge moves on metals for the first trading day of 2021. Mentioning this as often volumes are mostly subdued during this santa period, but it certainly was not the case here. This while the general market, DJIA, SPX, NASDAQ were bearish. Gold & silver very strong. Copper, iron ore, diversified mining, coal, nickel, lithium very strong with big moves and high volumes. Peabody Energy (coal) put on 22%. Coal not really a metal but it's use in steel making. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements; chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. First Quantum (nickel) 8% Anglo American (diversified mining) 6% Lithium ETF 7%. This could be the year for commodities to take over the reins from technology.
Huge day which may get better if Democrats take the Senate. TSX silver miners which have badly lagged Silver itself are on fire now; impressive new 52 week highs in some stocks. Gold miners reasonably strong but not the same huge push yet. Given that some profit taking often occurs the day after these rallies, I sold some of my Gold exposure end of day but maintained a fairly heavy Silver exposure regardless. I do find some of the Gold's sometimes don't gap up much if at all so I can rebuy if need be. Silver you need to be on board overnight and chasing isn't always great with those stocks.
For US traders, there's opportunities in uranium. Big moves today again. Consider CCJ, UUU, UEC. on TSX, consider DML, EFR. In Australia they're all penny stocks and I can't be bothered trading them. Metals in general are continuing their strong runs atm.
Once upon a time, no longer. Commodities go through booms and busts, there will be long periods where they stagnate. It's very common in Western Australia where the economy dries up, real estate prices plummet, employees flee the scene and return to their home countries. When commidities are hot they are great to trade because it's quite niche, but the hot then cold has forced me to diversify.....generally small to medium caps, whatever is hot, fintechs, technology, AI, gaming & betting co's. Lots of stuff I will never trade, realestate, construction co's, pharmaceuticals, coal I avoid, general software, retail stocks, these I wont trade. I tend to not like ETF's. Atm however I'm probably 70% weighted to commodites, gold, silver, nickel, rare earths, lithium.
I like that you keep track of commodity prices and review them. Do you conduct breakeven analysis and track commodities fundamentals?