Even though we don't have lithium mines of our own yet, it's good that we are already working on building a lithium processing plant here..
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China's Chengxin and Tsingshan team up for US$350 million Indonesia lithium project
The Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) in Central Sulawesi. - Jakarta Post/ANN
JAKARTA, Sept 25 (Reuters): China's Shenzhen Chengxin Lithium Group Co Ltd and an affiliate of steel and nickel giant Tsingshan Holding Group will invest in a US$350 million Indonesian lithium project to capture demand from the electric vehicle (EV) battery sector.
Tsingshan, which shook up the global nickel market by rapidly increasing production at low cost in Indonesia, is moving into lithium at a time when prices for the commodity are soaring amid booming EV sales in top market China.
In a filing, Chengxin said the partners would build a plant to make lithium chemicals in Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park on the island of Sulawesi. The park is home to several Chinese-invested projects including those making nickel and cobalt, which are also used in EV batteries.
Chengxin said the plant would produce 50,000 tonnes a year of lithium hydroxide and 10,000 tonnes a year of lithium carbonate, without providing a startup date.
Hydroxide prices in China are up 162.7% year-to-date, while those for carbonate are up 192.6%, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
Chengxin said it would own 65% of the joint venture - called PT ChengTok Lithium Indonesia - and Singapore-incorporated Stellar Investment Pte would hold 35%.
A Chengxin investor relations officer on Friday said Stellar is an affiliate of Tsingshan.
Tsingshan did not respond to a request for comment.
Indonesia is the world's biggest nickel miner but banned exports of nickel ore from 2020 as it sought to process more resources at home and establish a complete EV battery supply chain.
Last week, South Korea's LG Energy Solution and Hyundai Motor Group started construction of a $1.1 billion plant to make EV batteries in Indonesia's West Java province.
Chengxin did not say from where the lithium plant would source its raw materials but Daiwa Capital Markets analyst Dennis Ip said in a note that nearby Australia, which mines lithium-rich mineral spodumene, was the most likely option.
"It will be interesting to see which Australian miners have spare spodumene resources to be sold to Chengxin," Ip added. - Reuters
China's Shenzhen Chengxin Lithium Group Co Ltd and an affiliate of steel and nickel giant Tsingshan Holding Group will invest in a US$350 million Indonesian lithium project to capture demand from the electric vehicle (EV) battery sector.
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Ganfeng Lithium may make EV battery nickel chemicals in Indonesia -exec
CONTRIBUTOR
Tom Daly
Reuters
PUBLISHED
SEP 27, 2021 2:32AM EDT
China's Ganfeng Lithium Co Ltd, the world's biggest lithium company by market capitalisation, is considering making nickel chemicals for electric vehicle (EV) batteries in Indonesia, its vice chairman told Reuters.
Sept 27 (Reuters) - China's Ganfeng Lithium Co Ltd 002460.SZ, 1772.HK, the world's biggest lithium company by market capitalisation, is considering making nickel chemicals for electric vehicle (EV) batteries in Indonesia, its vice chairman told Reuters.
Ganfeng earlier this year agreed to buy nickel ore from Indonesia-focused miner Silkroad Nickel Ltd SILK.SI and is set to invest up to $30 million in the Singapore-listed company.
"We are about to close the deal and after that we are studying making downstream chemicals," Wang Xiaoshen said in an interview for the upcoming Reuters IMPACT conference.
The move would see Ganfeng, which supplies lithium to automakers including U.S. EV leader Tesla Inc TSLA.O, add production of another battery metal to its portfolio and become the latest Chinese company to pursue nickel smelting in Indonesia.
"Of course, we are closely watching the Indonesian national policy for nickel exports," Wang said. "So we will decide when the policy is clear what product is suitable to be produced in Indonesia. Definitely that would be supplies for the battery supply chain."
Indonesia, the world's biggest nickel miner, banned exports of nickel ore from 2020 to process more resources at home and set up a complete EV battery supply chain.
In addition, Indonesia is exploring levying an export tax on nickel products with less than 70% nickel content.
"We are evaluating all the options, including building the process ourselves" or third-party processing, Wang said.
Ganfeng occasionally buys nickel for production of nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) battery precursors to supplement its main source of supply - battery recycling, Wang explained.
To make the precursor business scalable, some nickel and cobalt will have to come from a more stable source, he said.
News that Ganfeng is thinking of producing nickel chemicals comes as one of the biggest investors in that space, Tsingshan Holding Group, is venturing into lithium in Indonesia.
Wang said it was "natural" for newcomers to join the industry given high lithium prices AM-995C-LCTC, which are up almost 200% this year on resurgent demand.
Ganfeng has also faced competition from an unnamed battery maker over its latest acquisition target, Argentina-focused Millennial Lithium Corp ML.V. It has until Monday to match or better the battery maker's offer for Millennial, which was higher than its own.
"We still have not made the final decision but we believe our original offer is a reasonable price," Wang said on Friday. "Even if the market is very hot we still need to keep our mind cool."
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https://reutersevents.com/events/impact/
(Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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