The Singapore Exchange plans to launch derivative contracts in battery metals in the first half of this year as demand booms for raw materials that play a crucial role in powering electric vehicles…The bourse is set to launch contracts in cobalt metal, cobalt hydroxide, lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, subject to regulatory approval, according to an exchange statement. SGX will partner with Fastmarkets, the price reporting agency for these products, it added…The global transition toward a greener future has stoked demand for materials from lithium to cobalt and nickel, which are used in rechargeable batteries. World lithium prices almost quadrupled in the past year, while cobalt doubled.

Cobalt sulfate prices continued moving up in China over the past week, on improving demand and with some consumers starting pre-holiday stock building, sources told Fastmarkets this week…Strength in the upstream cobalt hydroxide market, meanwhile, led to rising production at China’s cobalt refineries…Fastmarkets’ price assessment for cobalt sulfate 20.5% Co basis, exw China increased to 103,500-104,500 yuan ($16,267-16,424) per tonne on Wednesday January 12, up by 1,500 yuan per tonne from 102,000-103,000 yuan per tonne on January 7. More buyers were placing orders to prepare sufficient stocks ahead of China’s Lunar New Year holiday on January 31-February 6, with domestic logistics operations gradually slowing down from the end of this week.

Commodities prices may stay high for decades as mining companies struggle to keep up with demand from the energy transition, according to BlackRock’s Evy Hambro…Raw materials, and shares of some companies that produce them, hit record highs last year as massive global stimulus measures underpinned consumption. At the same time, the switch toward a greener world is creating fresh demand for metals such as copper, lithium and nickel…That trend’s unlikely to change anytime soon, Hambro, BlackRock’s global head of thematic and sector-based investing, told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday…“We’ve got decades worth of high rates of investment into infrastructure as the world seeks to decarbonise. That’s a widely held consensual view,” he said. “What we’re likely to see is strong demand that will keep prices at very very good levels for the producers for many years into the future, and that could be decades.”…His bullish comments echo those of banks including Goldman Sachs Group, which last week said that a commodities supercycle has the potential to last for a decade. While infrastructure spending will require large amounts of materials like steel and cement, the green revolution will also need more metals including cobalt and nickel for products like batteries… “It seems as though this core element of the transition has been completely ignored by many investors,” Hambro said. “At some point people will realize how essential these businesses are for the transition and capital will flow into them, and that should change the valuations.”

Last year, Norway reached a milestone. Only about 8 percent of new cars sold in the country ran purely on conventional gasoline or diesel fuel. Two-thirds of new cars sold were electric, and most of the rest were electric-and-gasoline hybrids…For years, Norway has been the world leader in shifting away from traditional cars, thanks to government benefits that made electric vehicles far more affordable and offered extras like letting electric car owners skip some fees for parking and toll roads…Still, electric car enthusiasts are stunned by the speed at which the internal combustion engine has become an endangered species in Norway…“It has surprised most people how quickly things have changed,” Christina Bu, the secretary general of the Norwegian EV Association, told me. In 2015, electric cars were about 20 percent of new car sales, and now they are “the new normal,” Bu said. (Her organization is like AAA for electric vehicle drivers…Americans might view Norwegians as environmental die-hards who were eager to ditch gas cars. But Bu and other transportation experts told me that Norwegians started with much of the same electric vehicle skepticism as Americans…That changed because of government policies that picked off the easier wins first and a growing number of appealing electric cars. Over time, that combination helped more Norwegians believe electric cars were for them. Bu wrote recently that if Norway could do it, the U.S. and other countries could, too…U.S. electric car sales are increasing fast, but at about 3 percent of new passenger vehicles, percentages are far lower than those in most other rich countries…So what did Norway do right? Bu said that the country’s policies focused first on what was the least difficult: nudging people who were considering a new car to go electric.

With the electric vehicle (EV) market continuing to grow, carmakers in Europe and the US have been building battery plants or partnering with battery manufacturers domestically. The shared goal is clear - becoming self-sufficient in electric vehicle batteries to fulfill the future demand for EVs…Companies in East Asia, especially China, controls most of the battery supply chain. According to AFP, more than 40% of global lithium production and close to 60% of lithium refining capacity are held by China. The situation has alarmed Western countries and made them actively build their own supply chains…Before the end of 2021, Northvolt, a Swedish battery company Volkswagen invests in, announced that it had produced the first battery designed, developed, and assembled in Europe…The company expected to increase the production in Sweden to 60GWh each year, according to a press release…Ramping up battery capacity has officially become EU's goal. According to Deutsche Welle, Maros Sefcovic, EU Commission VP, said EU should be able to provide vehicle makers with domestically produced EV batteries by 2025. He also said the EU is set to become the second-largest battery manufacturer globally…Volkswagen plans to build six battery cell factories in Europe by 2030, with one in Salzgitter, Germany, producing 20 GWh initially in 2025…At least 13 battery plants coming to the US…The battery supply chain Volkswagen has built does not only exist in Europe but also in America. The US Department of Energy recently released that 13 battery plants will be set up in the country by 2025, with a VW's factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. General Motors, collaborating with LG Chem and LG Energy Solution respectively, will open plants in several locations, including Lordstown, Ohio, and Spring Hill, Tennessee…Stellantis has teamed up with LG Energy Solution and Samsung SDI separately to build two plants. Toyota will set up a factory in Greensboro, North Carolina. Ford, who has said it will establish a JV with SK Innovation for battery production, plans to build factories in Memphis, Tennessee, and central Kentucky. SK Innovation will also build two plants in Atlanta, Georgia.

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services said its vehicle leasing and subscription platform, Quiklyz, is expanding its product offerings to include electric vehicles for leasing and subscription, according to a Wednesday filing.