$PILBF Pilbara Minerals..0.59 +0.058 (+10.90%) #EV #lithium supplier..Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) has announced that it has struck a multi-million dollar deal with Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor Company.
Pilbara Minerals said it’s the first time an electric manufacturer has struck a direct investment deal with a lithium supplier.
Under the offtake agreement, Great Wall will provide Pilbara Minerals with $28 million in an upfront equity subscription for shares in the Australian miner and take up to 150,000 tonnes per year of spodumene concentrate, a source of lithium...
3 Must Read Stories: China Orders North Korea Companies Shutdown, Yuan's Fall, China Car Maker's Lithium Play -- Barron's 9:17 PM ET 9/28/17 | Dow Jones
By Adam Routh
The Chinese government has ordered all North Korean companies or joint ventures operating in China to shut down within four months as a result of the United Nation sanctions imposed in response to Pyongyang's ballistic missile tests.
The move comes amid intense international pressure on China to rein-in Kim Jong-un's belligerent regime and ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's visit to China at the weekend, when the problem of North Korea will be discussed . Here's Bloomberg with the details:
Companies are required to cease business within 120 days of Sept. 12 -- the day after the UN passed new sanctions aimed at punishing North Korea for its latest missile and nuclear tests. Non-profit and non-commercial public utility and infrastructure projects are not subject to the order, the ministry said.
The Chinese yuan fell 0.5% against the dollar on Thursday, bringing bringing its declines over the last three weeks to 3.1% - halving the gains the Chinese currency had made versus the dollar this year. The Wall Street Journal takes a look at what lies behind the yuan's decline since it hit a 17-month high against the dollar on Sept. 8:
Soon after the yuan hit that high, China's central bank ended measures it had earlier put in place to support the yuan, including a two-year-old rule that made it more expensive for traders to bet against the currency. That move was taken by analysts and investors as a sign that Chinese authorities were growing uncomfortable with the currency's ascent against the dollar. A stronger yuan makes China's exports less competitive globally.
"It was quite an obvious turnaround in PBOC policy," said Ken Cheung, senior Asian foreign-exchange strategist at Mizuho Bank in Hong Kong.
Around the same time, the U.S. dollar started rebounding in global currency markets. The ICE Dollar Index, which measures the U.S. currency against six others, has risen 2.2% since Sept. 8.
The dollar's recovery gained steam after Federal Reserve officials indicated they still expect to raise interest rates one more time this year and three times in 2018, despite recent weak inflation readings. The Republican party's plan for overhauling the U.S. tax code, released Wednesday, has added to dollar's advance.
China has set a very ambitious electric vehicle production target as Beijing seeks to curb air pollution and nurture a domestic green-car industry. Domestic car makers will be forced to start manufacturing electric vehicles in 2019. With lithium batteries being key, China's Great Wall Motors has signed a deal with Australia's Pilbara Minerals for the supply of 150,000 tonnes a year of spodumene concentrate from Pilbara's Pilgangoora lithium mine for use in the car maker's electric
and hybrid vehicles. Speaking to The Australian, Pilbara managing director Ken Brinsden said he expected the deal to be the first of many between car makers and raw material suppliers:
"If you take a look across the lithium world, the two things are becoming clearer to the industry as a whole. Firstly, on the supply side, the raw materials are not coming online as quickly as many had assumed. Secondly, the demand growth is much bigger than people had previously shared," he told The Australian:
"Now it's becoming clearer just how big this story could be, people are realising they have to invest in what is happening in the raw material supply chain."
Under the deal, Great Wall will take a $28 million placement in Pilbara -- which will give it a stake of around 3 per cent in the company -- and will also provide up to $US50m in debt funding for a planned expansion of Pilgangoora.
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