Strategy & M&A Executive // CFO // Energy, Mining, Industrials & Infrastructure // McKinsey // Private Equity // Citigroup // Shell // NED on FTSE100/250 and TSX
China's dominance across critical #metals is one of the main bottlenecks on the path to #energytransition. This isn't news, as China has been building its portfolio across the transition metals (as well as the broader value chain) for over a decade - that's essentially where and when the mass roll-out of #EVs originally started. This will be a difficult one to walk back without full-on trade barriers and an uptick in prices for the metals produced outside of Chinese influence. #mining #industrial #strategy #investing #globaltrade #commoditytrading #lithium #batteries
In the first of a three-part series based on more than 40 interviews with industry executives, officials and politicians, Bloomberg has looked at Western efforts to create an alternative, China-free, global metals supply chain. Yet Beijing’s dominance remains unshaken. Tangible results from US efforts have so far been limited, and executives at some of the world's biggest mining companies have reported frustration at what they view as a lack of a coherent strategy on critical minerals supply. In the mid-1990s, the US government had more than 20,000 tons of cobalt in stock, enough to meet the entire domestic needs of the US for three years, according to Defense Department records. But when its budget was cut, cobalt was one of the first metals the DLA sold to balance its books—to the bemusement of traders who bought its reserves and sold them to a booming aerospace sector. “Twenty years ago, I told the director of the DLA: ‘We’re buying all this cobalt from you; at some point we’ll be selling it back to you,’” says Mark Kristoff, CEO of specialist metals trading house Traxys SA. “Now governments are waking up.” Mark Burton Joseph Deaux Michael Kavanagh Jennifer Dlouhy Annie Lee #metals #China #criticalminerals #EVs #cobalt https://lnkd.in/ea_GguWw
