Battery Metals

Lithium-ion battery packs are ubiquitous – powering laptops, electric cars, and even Mars-faring vehicles such as the Curiosity rover. They have a problem, though: if one of their cells – or any other component – breaks down, the whole pack stops working. Because of the way batteries are built, by welding or glueing parts tightly together, to fix one is almost impossible.

“It’s a lot like a safe,” says Amrit Chandan, who holds a PhD in fuel-cells technology. “You open it, you destroy it – and you can’t put it back together. You can’t repair it.”

Recycling the lithium is also inefficient; the result is simply that a lot of batteries are disposed of having still years-worth of life left in them.

Concerned at the situation, and worried that it would only worsen as electric vehiclesbecome more commonplace, in 2015 Chandan joined forces with mechanical engineer Carlton Cummins, in order to find a solution. Following months spent disassembling batteries, Cummins came up with a new lithium-ion battery design: it keeps cells together by means of compression, making it possible to service the pack when individual parts fail.

“You take a cell out, and replace it with a new one. We extract all of the value from the cells, which are no longer thrown away when they still work,” Chandan says.

He and Cummins’s 20-people-strong company, Aceleron, is now selling packs of various voltages and sizes, used in vehicles, watercrafts, and buildings – working with partners including oil and gas giant Total and energy companies BuffaloGrid and Innogen to bring their technology to developing regions in Africa and the Caribbean.

“Our product is really a solution for a lifetime,” Cummins says. It’s about time someone took charge.

Copper futures in China fell for a second session on Tuesday and touched their lowest level in 15 weeks, reflecting faltering sentiment among investors amid mounting concerns over an economic slowdown.

Prices tumbled in most Chinese commodities following a pre-Christmas holiday sell-off in overseas markets, with investors rattled by a likelihood of a prolonged U.S. government shutdown and the U.S. Treasury secretary’s convening of a crisis group meeting to calm markets.

Trade is generally lukewarm during the Christmas holiday period…China is unlikely to add more refined copper output before producers reach an agreement on new treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs), said analysts from CITIC Futures in a note in Mandarin.

A meeting to discuss the TC/RCs for the first quarter next year is scheduled to be held on Thursday.

“With Chinese new year approaching, total demand in the country will gradually weaken, which would rein in copper prices.”

* The most-traded February copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped as much as 1.6 percent to a level last seen on Sept. 12. It settled down 0.4 percent at 48,010 yuan ($6,973.43) a tonne when the market closed at 0700 GMT.

* LME COPPER: Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was down 0.6 percent to $5,955.5 a tonne on Monday, having hit its lowest since mid-September at $5,941. LME is closed on Tuesday for the Christmas holiday.

* CHINA ECONOMY: Business confidence among entrepreneurs in China worsened in the fourth quarter compared with the previous one, and was at the lowest since the second quarter of 2017, according to a survey by the People’s Bank of China published on Monday.

* CHINA TARIFFS: China plans to remove import and export tariffs in 2019 on a range of goods, including import taxes on alternative meals used in animal feed, to secure supplies of raw materials amid trade tensions with the United States and boosting outbound cargoes.

* CHINA ENVIRONMENT: China will adopt more efficient and targeted measures during its campaign against pollution next year, but will not relax the targets or ease the crackdown on violators, the environment ministry said in a statement on Monday night.

* RIO TINTO: Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto, is preparing to take its Iron Ore Company of Canada business public in the first half of 2019 by dual-listing it in New York and Toronto, people familiar with the situation told Reuters.

* GEM: Chinese battery firm GEM Co Ltd will supply 170,000 tonnes of raw materials to South Korean battery maker ECOPRO Co Ltd from 2019 to 2023, its latest effort to win a bigger share of the booming power cell market.

Dutch electric scooter company Etergo (formerly Bolt Mobility) just landed a €10M investment. The company is in the final stages of production preparation and will use the funding for production of their high tech, innovative and long range electric scooters.

Etergo raises production funding

Etergo announced that the €10M investment came from a German automotive company:

“We just signed and closed the contract for an investment of €10 million in Etergo. The investors (whom prefer not to disclose themselves at this time) are the shareholders behind a German Automotive company that has extensive experience in After-Sales & Distribution.”

Etergo has been on a strong funding streak in recent years. This round is the company’s fourth multi-million Euro investment and comes just a year after Etergo crowdfunded €5M to develop the AppScooter.

According to CEO and co-founder Bart Jacobsz:

“With this investment we bring in more than just capital. The knowledge and experience of our investor in the field of automotive and service are helping us to roll out the best service network in Europe. We will use this new capital and knowledge to produce a safe, environmentally friendly alternative for air-polluting petrol scooters on a large scale. Firstly in the Netherlands and Germany, but soon after that Etergo will introduce the AppScooter in other countries as well.”

The company plans to begin deliveries in the second half of 2019. Specialized vans will be used to deliver vehicles and provide mobile service options for riders.

Etergo has been riding a wave of enthusiasm for their AppScooter, with the first few production batches already sold out in the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK. Early production models are also nearly sold out in Italy, Spain and Switzerland. The company is currently still taking pre-orders for the second and third production batches for €239. The final price of the AppScooter will start at €3,399 (approximately US $3,800).

Etergo is in the final stages of production planning. After touring 60 possible manufacturing partners, the company has narrowed the options to just three remaining factories. Etergo is currently in contract negotiations with the factories as it prepares to shift into production.

Etergo’s AppScooter

The company has been making some bold claims regarding the AppScooter:

“The AppScooter is expected to be the safest scooter ever built. The vehicle has a range of up to 240 kilometers, can go from 0 – 45 km/h in 3.9s and is equipped with a 7-inch touchscreen and internet connection. With AppScooter’s handlebar controls, drivers can control their phone through Bluetooth, answer calls, stream music and control navigation.”

In addition to performance and connectivity, the 74 kg AppScooter has been designed for utility.

The Dutch are accustomed to using two-wheeled vehicles as their main form of transportation. As such, they need maximum utility. The AppScooter has been designed to offer a surprisingly large amount of storage, even with three modular batteries installed in the scooter.

While most other electric scooters sacrifice cargo space when adding auxiliary battery packs, the AppScooter’s brilliantly designed 7.5 kg banana-shaped batteries slide down under the floorboard.

The scooter can fit up to three batteries, though it can operate with just one. This lowers the vehicle’s center of gravity and leaves the entire 60L cargo space available.

World leader in batteries teams with giant Geely.

Zhejiang Jirun Automobile, a subsidiary of Geely Auto, and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd.(CATL) will set up a joint venture for the research and development, manufacturing and sales of batteries, battery modules and battery packs to enhance their core competence and the ability of sustainable development, both companies said on December 20.

According to the statement, the joint venture will be named CATL Geely Power Battery Co. Ltd, and the registered capital of the new joint venture will be RMB1 billion. CATL holds a 51% stake of the joint venture while the automaker owns the rest stake. Geely expects the new company will help with the stable supply of key components in electric vehicles. Both parties will enjoy complementary advantages and integrate sources to make preparation for the “post-subsidies era” in new energy vehicle segment.

Geely has around 300 patents in new energy core technologies and has formed an integrated industry supply chain in new energy vehicle segment. The cooperation with CATL will offer strong system support for the implementation of its new energy vehicle strategy.

In November, Geely Auto’s new energy vehicle sales surpassed 10,000 units, up 31% month on month. By 2020, the automaker will launch nearly 40 new energy vehicle models with competitive prices and outstanding performance.

Up to now, CATL has entered into partnership with many global automakers, such as BMW, VW, Daimler, and Jaguar Land Rover. It also has formed joint ventures with several local Chinese automakers, including GAC Group and SAIC Motor.

Political uncertainty and economic jitters have lifted precious metals recently. But which has more upside potential?

Silver futures (@SI) are trading near their cheapest ratio to gold futures (@GC) in over 16 years. History may suggest their valuation gap will narrow if current market conditions persist.

Gold has historically been the calmer metal, while silver is more volatile and moves more quickly. (This relates to its higher storage cost.) Generally bullish periods for precious metals see the grey metal rising more quickly than the yellow one. For example, that happened 2003-2007, 2009-2011 and early 2016.

Just the opposite is true when investors shun precious metals. Just look at 2011-2015 or 2017 through the end of November.

But this month has been different as investors worry about the government shutdown and massive selloff in equity markets. Gold and silver bullion, along with companies extracting metal from the ground, are pretty much the only gainers in the entire market over the last month.

Are we at the start of a new cycle for precious metals? Clients will have to research that and decide for themselves. But they might want to consider this historical relationship between gold and silver in their trading.

A global nickel market deficit will nearly halve to 49,000 tonnes in 2019 from 93,000 tonnes this year on higher output of primary metals by global suppliers and of lower-grade nickel pig iron (NPI) in Indonesia, Sumitomo Metal Mining said on Tuesday.

Sumitomo Metal, Japan’s biggest nickel smelter, said global demand for nickel is seen increasing by 3.4 percent in 2019 from this year to 2.339 million tonnes, while supply is expected to climb 5.5 percent to 2.29 million tonnes.

“We expect to see higher demand for stainless steel and rechargeable batteries next year,” Masanori Ohyama, general manager of Sumitomo Metal’s nickel sales and raw materials department, told reporters.

Nickel is mainly used in stainless steelmaking, but is also a vital ingredient for the lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles, where demand is set to accelerate over coming years.

“As for supply, we expect an expanded production of NPI in Indonesia and a pick-up in output from class I producers,” Ohyama said, referring to the producers of high-purity metal with more than 99.8 percent nickel content. NPI usually has less than 12 percent nickel content.

The roughly 2.2 million tonne-a-year nickel market will likely register a deficit of 93,000 tonnes in 2018, widening from 77,000 tonnes in 2017, according to the company.

Sumitomo Metal, which supplies cathode materials for Panasonic Corp lithium ion batteries that are used in Tesla Inc electric vehicles, said the use of nickel in rechargeable batteries will boost global demand of the metal by around 20,000-25,000 tonnes in 2019 to around 140,000-150,000 tonnes.

About 10,000 tonnes increase of the total will come from Japan, Ohyama said.

Japan’s demand for nickel is projected to rise 9.5 percent to 199,200 tonnes, while supply is forecast to climb 2.3 percent to 188,100 tonnes, resulting in a deficit of 11,100 tonnes.

Ohyama declined to comment on his outlook for the metal’s prices.