Battery Metals

Will all-solid-state batteries be a “game-changer for EVs?” Nissan believes so. The automaker is accelerating all-solid-state EV battery development, hoping to make its electric models more competitive. Nissan kicked off construction on its all-solid-state EV battery pilot line this week with plans to introduce them in a wide range of models, including pickups.

Nissan preps for all-solid-state EV battery development

This week, Nissan showed off its all-solid-state battery pilot line at its Yokohama Plant. Under its Ambition 2030 strategy, Nissan plans to launch solid-state battery-powered EVs by early 2029.

By 2030, Nissan plans to introduce 19 new EVs with electrified vehicles (including hybrids) accounting for 55% of global sales.

A big part of Nissan’s strategy includes advanced battery tech. Nissan unveiled plans to launch EVs with all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) made in-house by fiscal year 2028. Nissan says it can introduce better-performing EVs across more segments with ASSBs.

Nissan believes the new tech will be a “game-changer for EVs,” with the potential to offer twice the energy density of traditional lithium-ion batteries at a lower cost.

Nissan also believes solid-state batteries can reduce charging times by one-third. The company is involved in “wide-ranging research and development,” including molecular-level material research.

Using this info, Nissan is stepping up development with plans to introduce the new tech at mass scale.

Since launching the LEAF in 2010, Nissan’s Yokohama Plant has been producing electric motors. However, the plant’s biggest transformation is underway.

Copper closed regular trading hours Monday at $4.38 a pound or $9,656 a tonne, up 2% on the day bringing year to date gains to more than 12%. Copper is now trading at levels last seen early June 2022.

The run up over the past few weeks was sparked by pledges from Chinese smelters to cut output by 5%-10% in the face of tighter-than-expected concentrate supply and overcapacity after years of relentless expansion.

New satellite data appears to show China’s so-called Copper Smelter Purchase Team are making good on those promises.

Latest data from high frequency data provider Earth-i global copper monitoring index shows smelter inactivity in China rose to an average of 8.5%, compared with 4.1% in the first quarter of 2023 and 4% in the same quarter the year before.

In March inactivity levels in China reached 9%, lifting the gauge to nearly 18% on a global basis. Earth-i points out that inactivity in China jumped sharply in the final days of March indicating the possible impact of CSPT members’ actions, ending the month at 12.8% according to the UK based company:

“Significantly, we are now entering a period of several scheduled maintenance closures, and this is expected to help ease the tight concentrate supply situation which has helped to depress smelter treatment charges (TCs) and by extension smelter profitability.”

Evidence of how desperate Chinese refiners are to source raw material was a recent report that BHP sold concentrate cargoes from Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine, at treatment charges as low as $3 per tonne and refining charges of 0.3 cents a pound to at least one Chinese smelter.

When prices declined to below $8,000 a tonne in 2023, treatment and refining charges – paid by miners to refiners to convert concentrate into metal – were north of $90 a tonne.

Shanghai stockpile

Separately Shanghai Metals Markets estimates China produced an annualised 26 million tonnes of semi-wrought copper and copper alloys in March but producers’ operating rate declined to 69.8%, down nearly 7% compared to March 2023 with the rise in copper prices impacting downstream consumption according to the market data firm.

China was responsible for more than half the world’s 2023 refined copper output of 27 million tonnes and customs data showed strong numbers for unwrought copper and copper concentrate imports in March.

China imported 1.38 million tons of unwrought copper in the first quarter, up 6.9% from the same period in 2023 while imports of copper concentrate came in at 2.3 million tonnes for March, up 15.3% over March 2023 lifting Q1 cargoes to a shade under 7 million tonnes, up a more modest 5.1% year on year.

Other indicators coming out of China have not been an unalloyed good for the global copper market however. Shanghai Futures Exchange inventory data shows copper stocks continuing to rise with a 2.7% gain over the past week to around 300,000 tonnes.

BMO Capital Markets cautions bulls saying given the counter-seasonal increase in stockpiles in China the investment bank “feels spot copper prices have moved a little above current fundamentals” and it “would want to see more evidence of underlying Chinese demand to backstop price gains.”

Washington and London on Friday prohibited metal-trading exchanges from accepting new aluminum, copper and nickel produced by Russia and barred the import of the metals into the US and Britain.

The action is aimed at disrupting Russian export revenue amid Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which has killed or wounded tens of thousands and reduced cities to rubble. Russia is a major producer of aluminum, copper and nickel.

Russian metals producers Rusal and Nornickel did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment, nor did the Russian embassy in Washington.

The US Treasury Department said Friday’s action would prohibit the London Metal Exchange and Chicago Mercantile Exchange from accepting new Russian production of aluminum, copper and nickel.

“Our new prohibitions on key metals, in coordination with our partners in the United Kingdom, will continue to target the revenue Russia can earn to continue its brutal war against Ukraine,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.

“By taking this action in a targeted and responsible manner, we will reduce Russia’s earnings while protecting our partners and allies from unwanted spillover effects.”

Existing stock

A UK official said London expected any market disruption to stabilize quickly, and that the government had consulted with colleagues in the US, the LME, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority to minimize any possible disruption.

“The LME reflects all relevant sanctions and tariffs in its operations, and so will take steps … to implement these sanctions for its own operations, and the operation of its market,” the LME said in a statement, adding that it will release further guidance before the market opens on Monday.

Both the British and US measures will exempt the existing stock of Russian metal on these global exchanges so they can still be traded and withdrawn in an effort to minimize the risk to market stability, the British government said in a statement.

The action does not block bilateral contracts, which will be able to continue, US and British officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The officials said continued trading of Russian metals off of the exchanges is expected to be at a discount, and that while the action does not restrict supply, it is expected that the amount of revenue Russia can get per trade will be reduced.

Washington and London will monitor the discount at which Russian metal is continuing to be exchanged elsewhere, the officials said.

Available aluminum stocks in London Metal Exchange-registered warehouses were 91% of Russian origin in March, unchanged from the previous month, LME data showed on Wednesday.

The high share of Russian-origin metal in LME inventories has been a concern for some producers, which compete with Russia’s Rusal, and some Western consumers who have avoided Russian metal since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The share of Russian-origin copper stocks rose to 62% in March from 52% the previous month and the share of Russian nickel rose to 36% from 35% over the same period, the LME said.

Friday’s action is the latest in a series of sanctions imposed on Russia by the US, Britain and allies over the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The US last year extended its economic measures against Russia into the metals and mining sector with tariffs on the metals. Officials on Friday said the US imports of the three metals had effectively fallen to zero since.

Britain banned the import of base metals from Russia in December 2023, and said it would extend the prohibition to related ancillary services when it could be done in concert with international partners.

Scientists have discovered a new process that could supercharge the transition to next-generation rechargeable batteries capable of more than doubling the range of current electric vehicles.

The research could help facilitate a switch from conventional lithium-ion batteries – which are found in everything from smartphones to electric cars – to solid-state sodium batteries, which are both cheaper and safer.

Solid-state sodium batteries are also made of materials that are far more abundant than their lithium-ion counterparts, however until now mass production has proved difficult.

A team from Osaka Metropolitan University in Japan claim the newly discovered process could overcome this obstacle through the mass synthesis of a highly conductive electrolyte.

“This newly developed process is useful for the production of almost all sodium-containing sulfide materials, including solid electrolytes and electrode active materials,” said Professor Atsushi Sakuda from Osaka Metropolitan University.

“Also, compared to conventional methods, this process makes it easier to obtain materials that display higher performance, so we believe it will become a mainstream process for the future development of materials for all-solid-state sodium batteries.”

The solid sulfide electrolyte has the world’s highest reported sodium ion conductivity – roughly 10 times higher than is required for commercial use.

Unlike the liquid electrolytes used in lithium-ion batteries, the solid electrolyte is not susceptible to bursting into flames when dropped or charged in the wrong way.

The breakthrough could prove most promising for the electric vehicle sector, offering superiour performance, reduced cost and enhanced sustainability.

They could also eliminate range anxiety by vastly improve the charging capacity of electric car batteries.

Japanese automaker Toyota claims solid-state batteries could offer a range of 1,200 km, which is more than twice the range of electric vehicles currently on the market. Charge times for these new batteries could be as short as 10 minutes.

The research was published in the scientific journal Energy Storage Materials, in a paper titled ‘Utilising reactive polysulfides flux Na2Sx for the synthesis of sulfide solid electrolytes for all-solid-state sodium batteries’.