Canada will earmark C$15 billion ($12 billion) over five years for a Growth Fund to attract private investment in new and green technologies, a senior government source said on Wednesday, a day before this year's budget presentation…The money being set aside for the fund will come from the "existing fiscal framework" and the government will seek to attract C$3 of private investment for every C$1 of public funding, the source said…Reuters this week reported Canada would invest in a critical minerals strategy in the budget. That investment of at least C$2 billion will be separate…However, as an example, the Growth Fund could also be used to develop a critical minerals mine in a remote corner of the country that would be too costly for a company to do on its own, the source said.

Private companies will take over from state firms in pursuing raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel to better respond to supply shortages stemming from global political unrest, President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition committee said Wednesday…“The supply bottlenecks are getting worse because geopolitical unrest is taking place worldwide and supply chains are held hostage. Demand for raw materials is growing since more electric vehicles and renewable energy are using them,” Kim Gi-heung, deputy spokesperson of the committee, said at a press briefing…The International Energy Agency, a Paris-based group dealing with the global energy system, said demand for lithium, cobalt and nickel in 2040 will be, respectively, 42 times, 21 times and 19 times that of 2020…Given the situation, the Yoon government, which starts work on May 10, will create an “ecosystem” where it would support the private sector to compete in the global race for raw materials, the deputy spokesperson said, adding support includes tax breaks and funding for R&D…Companies to receive such state support would, however, have to maintain emergency reserves for the government by law. The transition committee would soon roll out a new legal framework to clarify boundaries between the private sector and government…Last year, the Moon government consolidated debt-ridden state companies and launched Korea Mine Rehabilitation and Mineral Resources Corp. The new mining firm was banned from making direct foreign investments because that had all added irreparable losses. Its role was reduced to supporting private companies.

Chinese battery materials producer Huayou Cobalt resumed production on some of its cobalt smelting and recycling lines at its Quzhou subsidiary in Zhejiang province on April 4 due to the improved Covid-19 situation, the company said on Wednesday April 6…After three days with no new Covid-19 cases, Quzhou city's local authority has begun to relax controls and has allowed local enterprises to resume production.

Vietnamese automaker VinFast said on Thursday its Singapore-based holding company had filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with U.S. securities regulators, as it plans spending of $4 billion on its first U.S. factory complex…VinFast, which became the first fully fledged domestic car maker in 2019, is betting big on the U.S. market, where it hopes to compete with legacy automakers and startups with electric SUVs and a battery leasing model…A source familiar with the matter said VinFast would probably look to raise about $2 billion from the offering…She said the IPO was planned for the second half of this year as one option to fund a plant planned in North Carolina and U.S. expansion. Last week the company said it signed a preliminary deal to initially invest $2 billion to build the North Carolina factory to make electric buses, sport utility vehicles and batteries for electric vehicles…The company, established in 2017, plans to transition to all-electric vehicle production from late 2022…Outside North America, VinFast is looking for a plant in Germany, it said in January…VinFast said prices for its VF8 SUV started from $41,000 in the United States, versus about $63,000 for a Tesla SUV. It targets global electric vehicle sales of 42,000 this year.

General Motors and Honda Motor Co said on Tuesday they will develop a series of lower-priced electric vehicles based on a new joint platform, producing potentially millions of cars from 2027 in a bid to beat Tesla in sales…The announcement expands on plans for GM to begin building two electric SUVs for Honda starting in 2024 - the Honda Prologue and an Acura model…The automakers said the new deal is for "affordable" EVs, including compact crossover vehicles, built using GM's Ultium battery technology…GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said Tuesday at an Axios event the pricing will come in below the $30,000 price tag planned for the electric Chevrolet Equinox SUV. She said the new lower-priced vehicles would be "attainable EVs."…The companies said they will also discuss future battery technology collaboration for electric vehicles in a push to drive down costs.

Posco Chemical,a chemical and battery materials producer under steel giant Posco Group, said Thursday that it had kicked off construction for a new plant that can produce 30,000 metric tons of high-purity nickel cathodes, a key material used in electric vehicle batteries…Targeting to begin operations in 2024, the new factory will be established on over 120,000 square meters of land in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, with an annual production capacity at 30,000 tons…The Pohang plant will manufacture NCMA cathodes containing nickel, cobalt, manganese and aluminum. NCMA cathodes are rich in nickel, the source of energy for lithium in lithium-ion batteries, which determine battery capacity and the average voltage…The firm added that it will also establish a production network in major EV markets such as North America, China, Europe and Indonesia, with cathode production capacity at a combined 115,000 tons annually.