The Chancellor has announced that UK Export Finance (UKEF), the government’s export credit agency, will offer financial support for overseas projects that supply critical minerals fuelling UK industrial growth and the net zero transition…By securing contracts which increase and diversify UK access to critical minerals, this will help the UK to build economic resilience and lower the risk of supply-chain disruption in major industries like automotive, defence and aerospace…‘Critical minerals’ are raw materials like lithium, graphite and cobalt which are essential to the UK’s largest exporting sectors. They are used in range of emerging and sustainable technologies like electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines…Financing will be offered in the form of credit guarantees to overseas companies, helping them access debt financing for projects which supply UK exporters with critical mineral products – including both raw and processed materials…It is expected that UKEF will work with other ECAs and public financial institutions to finance eligible projects and support investment into new supply routes…This would make it easier for UK manufacturers to secure contracts with critical mineral suppliers in countries with vast mineral deposits, including Australia, which holds large deposits of lithium.  

China is no longer the gift that keeps on giving. Homegrown Chinese cars, notably the electric ones, are moving up the quality and value chain fast and sending the foreign nameplates packing…At the same time, Chinese car companies are making inroads into Europe. The European automakers can’t win. They are losing market share in China and sales and profits are slumping in their home market as Chinese electric vehicles that are affordable find buyers who can’t afford an electric Audi that costs more than a child’s university education…Volkswagen AG shows how the mighty have fallen as European sales soften, Chinese EVs extend their lead, and European regulators try to kill off the internal combustion engine. Early this week, the world’s No. 2 automaker (Toyota is biggest) announced the unthinkable – for the first time in its 87-year history, it will close plants in Germany. It is also closing an Audi plant in Brussels…The closings are part of the company’s biggest-ever restructuring…Volkswagen’s woes are a sign of the crisis to come in the German, and European, auto industry. China’s lead in EVs seems insurmountable, all the more so since the country has locked, or is locking up, the global supplies and refining of many critical metals for EV batteries, such as cobalt, nickel, copper and graphite. China’s share of key battery components for EVs is estimated at 80 per cent, meaning no Western car maker that needs batteries for its EVs can avoid enriching Chinese suppliers…Western car companies’ market share is bound to keep falling as Chinese car companies turn from metal bashers into masters of design and software development. Chinese auto companies can pump out new models years faster than their European rivals.

Global battery cell prices slid to record lows last month due to persistent declines in raw materials prices such as lithium and cobalt, consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence said…The weaker battery prices were led by lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells, which dropped to $59 per per kilowatt hour (kWh) in September, based on weighted average prices…The global weighted average price of NCM cells fell to $68.6 per kWh, a decline of 11.3% so far in 2024, BMI added.