As per the last post, where I mentioned Zinc, here we go for other signals and markers for a persistent higher price and low supply of this metal. And in numerous other posts I kept arguing there is not enough supply, even without disruption, to keep up with Green Policy demands.
And then, the lithium shortage just solidified itself, to the surprise one, not a single person paying attention or possessing a shred of common sense. Worth to note, from a Hybrid Warfare PoV, using environmental activists as covert assets to disrupt your adversaries attempt to resource independence is quite brilliant.
Batteries are not the sole use of lithium.
Lithium and its compounds have several industrial applications, including heat-resistant glass and ceramics, lithium grease lubricants, flux additives for iron, steel and aluminium production, lithium batteries, and lithium-ion batteries. These uses consume more than three-quarters of lithium production.
Also, what at point we should consider Canada a vassal state of China or a collapsing nation ? All their policy are contrived, counterproductive or suicidal, even when they marginally attempt to correct their past errors.
As per may hiking and early January 2022 posts, Omicron was, and still is, wiping out the workforce of the entire planet, not because of it’s severity, but misguided curbing policies (good luck trying to stop the spread of something aerosolized virus bro). And now, multiple industries from manufacturing to services start to show the start of the cascade effects. It’s not only Iron, but decided to list that one here.
As a side note to an article focused more on metals, the fertlizer shortage of the last 3 months has yet to subside and that is not the problem, the higher costs right now are all for a lot of different reasons. From any decent analytical perspective, there is no feasible way food inflation gets better 2022-2023 if everything goes back to functioning.
To the credit of many countries, they are all deciding to stop their own collapse and attempting to correct course, so maybe we are in for just 2 to 3 years of pain and not an entire decade as I previously thought. One can only hope. The Biden administration is suicidal enough to not only collapse their own country but the entire planet with it.
Attempting to pass a bill, to create an internal supply chain needed, but right now is misguided, since these factories take time to build. There isn’t enough trained, skilled workforce available, so add another few years to the mix. Months ago “experts” said the US should just reshore everything and the usual bravado and nobody addressed the timeframe that takes.
Neither anyone proposed a short-term solution.
And for last, you should really read that entire ABF piece, and grasp that whoever is peddling you short-term solutions, is selling you hopium, bullshit, while high on copium.
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Report: Incoming lithium battery shortage in 2022
The struggle continues to find enough semiconductors for automotive OEMs into 2022, but with news that the shortage may be easing this year, another problem is emerging in a lithium battery shortage that could be much worse.
In a report from DigiTimes Asia, the supply chain for lithium batteries cannot meet upcoming demand.
This means more EVs need more lithium batteries and supply is not sufficient to keep up with this anticipated demand, according to the report. These batteries are the core power supply for all-EVs and without enough supply, vehicle production will be impacted, possibly jeopardizing the roll out of the EVs that are part of these companies plans to meet upcoming regulations for carbon emissions and their own personal goals of becoming net carbon neutral.
Threat of graphite supply shortage looms over electric vehicle rollout
lobal reliance on China for graphite, a key ingredient in batteries, has emerged as a major obstacle to electric-vehicle makers' production schedules amid trade disputes and soaring demand.
U.S.-based battery and car companies have urged President Joe Biden to ease trade restrictions or risk impeding the administration's push to electrify transportation sectors, according to industry experts. Producers trying to break into the market for graphite, the largest component of lithium-ion batteries by volume, have begun building out new production facilities in the U.S. and Canada, but they are years away from production.
Graphite is an abundant mineral around the world and relatively cheap compared with other battery materials, but finding the right quality and type of graphite needed for batteries can be tricky. The global demand for EVs is expected to drive a massive increase in demand for graphite.
China touches almost all of the world's graphite along its path to the consumer. The U.S. imported 64,396 tonnes of refined graphite between January and November in 2021, of which 73.3% came from China. Even when graphite is mined or manufactured outside of China, such as from Mozambique, it is typically routed to China for processing and refinement. And most graphite refined in places such as Japan comes from China
We cannot rely on China to build it all for us, like in the past," said Eric Desaulniers, founder, president and CEO of Nouveau Monde Graphite. "We need to streamline permitting. We need to go back to exploration to find more deposits of all those minerals. And we need to build our own supply chain locally," Desaulniers added.
Rio Tinto's lithium setback in Serbia inflames supply squeeze
Serbia's decision on Jan. 20 to revoke permits for a Rio Tinto Group lithium project will eliminate almost one-third of future European lithium production, dealing a heavy blow to the continent's battery-makers and electric vehicle manufacturers.
"This was set to be the biggest producing lithium project in Europe," Miller said. "It's going to really damage the pipeline for lithium production within Europe."
Iron ore price jumps as Fortescue, BHP and Rio Tinto face labour shortage
The iron ore price jumped on Tuesday after Fortescue raised concerns over a labour shortage in Australia because of covid-19 curbs, which could hamper output and shipments.
BHP and Rio Tinto have also warned of disruptions from labour shortages as Australia faces a surge of Omicron coronavirus variant cases.
Zinc squeeze worsens as a second European smelter closes
Premiums for physical zinc are at record highs as the market scrambles for metal after the closure of a second zinc smelter due to high power costs.
Nyrstar is placing its Auby smelter in France on care and maintenance, citing “historically high” European electricity prices which show no signs of abating.
Glencore has already closed its Portovesme zinc plant for the same reason.
The unexpected curtailment of the two plants has blown a 260,000-tonne hole in the European zinc supply chain.
It has also galvanized the London Metal Exchange (LME) zinc price, which is creeping back up towards October’s decade highs with time-spreads still tense.
Europe’s power crisis and the resulting hit on regional zinc smelters has happened so fast it has completely wrong-footed the market.
Low stocks have left European buyers particularly exposed.
‘Supply chain pressure’ at Atlas Iron affecting iron ore shipping schedules
Australian miner Atlas Iron is facing "a range of supply chain pressures" that are having a negative impact on its bulk haulage capacity, a spokesman told Fastmarkets on Friday January 28.
“In Western Australia, this has been made worse by the skills shortage,” he said, but added that the problem was common across the mining sector in Australia.
Canada says it saw no need to block China firm’s bid for lithium miner
Canada did not stop a Chinese firm’s bid for a Toronto-listed lithium miner because it saw no risk to national security, Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said on Thursday.
U.S. warns that computer chip shortage could shut down factories
Worsening ABF substrate shortfall could extend global chip shortage beyond 2022
The semiconductor industry is dealing with a debilitating global chip shortage that began in 2020 and will likely persist into 2023.
However, market watchers have noted that increasingly constrained quantities of Ajinomoto build-up film (ABF) substrate, a material critical to component manufacturing, could exacerbate the situation
The key resource has been in short supply throughout 2021, which has restricted the fabrication of many popular integrated circuits (ICs). Analysts expect the gap between ABF substrate demand and supply to worsen next year, raising prices and disrupting availability.
Moreover, insiders believe the imbalance will not be corrected until 2025 at the very earliest.
ABF Substrate Bottleneck Could Last until 2025
Compounding a difficult situation, several market watchers expect the ABF substrate shortage will be a long-term challenge.
Citigroup analysts Grant Chi and Takayuki Naito predicted demand would rise by an estimated 18 to 19 percent annually through 2024. The pair also forecast production of the material would grow at 16 percent yearly in the same period. President Capital Management analyst Owen Cheng offered a more dire outlook, asserting the shortfall would reach 33 percent in 2022.
Those projections make sense considering the status of various Taiwan-based ABF substrate manufacturers.
For example, Unimicron, a leading materials vendor, revealed its ABF substrate fabrication space had been booked through 2025. As a result, that company and Kinsus Interconnect Technology are working to meaningfully expand their output by 2023.
While those efforts will relieve the bottleneck in the long term, no short-term solutions are available. Bloomberg believes intense demand and insufficient capacity for ABF substrate will keep the material in short supply through 2023. DigiTimes concurs and expects the demand gap to expand to 30 to 50 percent through 2023.
Global 'nitrogen fertilizer' shortage causing farmer frenzy
Nitrogen fertilizer prices started increasing last fall. This is due to a number of factors: supply issues, reduction in production, and the price of the natural gas rising -- to name a few.
You can grow corn without it, but you're not going to grow anything like what people are used to seeing around here. It'll be short with not very much corn on it."
Farmers will be applying this high-priced fertilizer this spring, so it has not affected grocery prices yet, but it will in the future.
Ah come on.
There is no more industrial (*REAL* industrial) competency in the US. Accountants & phoney money wankers took over more than a generation ago. Went there, lived it. Veni-Vivi-Voltei.
No real engineer left, just powerpoint & virtual reality online phoney-boys. Not a single screw or bolt (carbon or SS) is manufactured in the US anymore, & you'd want to wage a war without either, against your supplier. and the thing below the screws head I forgot the name in english, because we don't name these in english anymore (spoiler: washer).
Sending out the factories, you send out the capacity & its future. Duh.
It's all MAX'ed out- as in 737-8 Max. Or Fucked^35.
All-in-all, I agree with Klaus, Vladimir & Jinping: it's a failure, let's wipe the table.
BUT: this failure was piloted. Guided. Provoked. None of this in 1972 was inevitable or unredeemable. So?
Their vaccines aren't even killing the ++growth populations - doesn't even make sense in their malthusian delusion: they're killing the older fatter declining populations, the stupid among the useless eaters.
As I just questionned on https://twitter.com/amicocolorido/status/1487219676220473344:
*WHY FUCKEN WHY?*
*WHAT FOR?*
to create a reservation?
Recommend listening podcast.
PS: first.