Umicore is scaling-back a number of supply chain investments as it recognises a €1.6 billion impairment charge on its battery material business, citing a “sharp slowdown” in the ramp up of EV sales in half-year results released last week. The Belgian company said it was seeing an 18-month delay in the “ramp up of customer […]
> Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, specialising in EV supply chain research and insights, reports that 1.9 million electric vehicles were sold globally in October 2025. Rho Motion Data Manager, Charles Lester, commented: “Global EV sales reach 1.9 million units in October 2025, marking a 23% increase year-to-date. Europe led regional growth with a 36% year-on-year increase, driven […]
> Vulcan Energy Resources, an Australian DLE (direct lithium extraction) developer operating in Europe, has signed an eight-year offtake agreement with commodity trader Glencore. Under this agreement Glencore will take 40,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide (35,200 tonnes LCE) over an eight-year period starting from when Vulcan Energy enters commercial production, towards the end of the decade. […]
> Since January 2025, 108GWh of LFP production capacity has been announced in North America through to 2030, bringing the total to 281GWh. These announcements have been driven by the increasing importance of the BESS industry in the US, as tax credits for EVs have been phased out. How is future capacity changing? The new capacity […]
> Benchmark hosted its inaugural Giga Africa event in Marrakesh, Morocco in September, featuring delegates from across the battery supply chain. Over the many conversations and discussions held about Africa’s place in the global battery supply chain, several key themes emerged: Explore these topics in the words of Giga Africa’s expert speakers and panellists.
> CODELCO, the Chilean state-owned copper miner, has reportedly offered their European customers record premiums on copper cathodes at USD 325/t for 2026 – 39% higher than last year’s level – according to sources familiar with the matter and media reports. This follows on from news last week that Aurubis increased offers 38% for 2026, leaving […]
> Rho Motion analysts attended the recent RE+ event in Las Vegas Nevada, the largest clean energy event in North America. RE+ is a pivotal opportunity to put the finger on the pulse of the US energy transition, and this year provided insights into investor sentiment and technology developments. Notable product launches from Tesla and e-STORAGE […]
> Toyota has signed a KRW 2.9 trillion ($2.2 billion) contract with LG Chem to supply cathode material to its North American operations until 2030. The deal comes not long after the Japanese automaker announced it would secure 20 gigawatt-hours of cells a year from LG Energy Solution, a subsidiary of LG Chem, from its gigafactory […]
> India’s pipeline of cathode active material (CAM) production capacity is set to grow more than 50-fold over the next decade. Altmin, Himadri Speciality Chemical, and Epsilon Advanced Materials have the largest pipeline capacities in the country. Almost all CAM capacity under development in India is for LFP, both due to the popularity of the cathode […]