WheresTheMonkey
Regular
Yeah OK now I am convinced it's Summer Vacation time and the plonkers have all fxcxed off to their fishing huts for a few weeks
So 14th June Swedish time is actually around first week of August Australian time
TLG Discussion 2022
- Thread starter zeeb0t
- Start date
So 14th June Swedish time is actually around first week of August Australian time
cosors
👀
What else suggests that there is something to it can be seen on the page of the Land and Environmental Court of Appeal under the decisions.
https://www.domstol.se/mark--och-miljooverdomstolen/mark--och-miljooverdomstolens-avgoranden/
I have skimmed a few pages and the interval between the notifications is a maximum of 4 days as far as I can see. Otherwise, the notifications appear at regular intervals of maybe two to three days. But since 2023-07-06 there has been silence from them with announcements. Maybe they really have just turned off the lights and are now lying in the sun. If that were the case our case would simply not seem important enough.
If that is the case then I think it is impertinent of them or the administrator of our case not to at least send Talga some information. Everyone involved has been looking at each other questioningly since the 14th. I wonder if Talga has any clue about this.
I'll be on holiday and see you again at the end of August. I hope that's not a problem. Press send, switch off my PC and get out of here quickly.
WheresTheMonkey
Regular
OK so over at the Finnish forum someone just posted this . I thought it was well established the Council will have no say on permits. This is strictly a Court decision
Wrangler
9 min
In Sweden, the last things were found from April, when Taiga received an environmental permit for one mining area, which also gives permission to operate the mine for 6 months a year. After all, the Taiga project covers four areas. A decision of the Kiiruna City Council is also required. At least in March 2023, the Social Democrats of Kiruna, who have a majority in the city government, announced that they were responsible for the mining project. The matter will be considered by the city council in the fall. If the city government of Kiiruna says no, I understood that the matter has been patted down, meaning that the mine will not come. Unless Taiga starts a new round.
From what I wrote in April, I understood that the building permits have yet to be approved and you can always complain about them (and probably will). All in all, you could guess that the schedule is in a long tree if the appeals procedure is as slow as ours.
A lot depends on which angle you look at reindeer husbandry and the rights of the original Sami inhabitants to the land. And you can easily get a big sopa out of it.
Wrangler
9 min
In Sweden, the last things were found from April, when Taiga received an environmental permit for one mining area, which also gives permission to operate the mine for 6 months a year. After all, the Taiga project covers four areas. A decision of the Kiiruna City Council is also required. At least in March 2023, the Social Democrats of Kiruna, who have a majority in the city government, announced that they were responsible for the mining project. The matter will be considered by the city council in the fall. If the city government of Kiiruna says no, I understood that the matter has been patted down, meaning that the mine will not come. Unless Taiga starts a new round.
From what I wrote in April, I understood that the building permits have yet to be approved and you can always complain about them (and probably will). All in all, you could guess that the schedule is in a long tree if the appeals procedure is as slow as ours.
A lot depends on which angle you look at reindeer husbandry and the rights of the original Sami inhabitants to the land. And you can easily get a big sopa out of it.
cosors
👀
I think that is not correct statement or some misleading. They mean a different thing and not the permits I think.
As I understand it the last step after the approval procedure is the detailed development plan. And here the Social Democrats have narrowly opposed the decision of the previous parliament and decided to vote against this detailed plan when the time comes ('in the fall').
But this can be overturned by the government and bypassed the city parliaments decision if they want to. PEL is also confident about this and with LKAB he knows Kiruna and the politics very well. You yourself posted that lawyer's statement the other day explaining that this is one of the rare cases where the government can intervene directly. I have read every post there and except for the August affair I have not found anything new for us.
"...if the municipality does not adopt a detailed plan that, for example, promotes this national interests, then the government can step in and instruct the municipality to adopt such a plan and that breaks the municipal planning monopoly. It is one of very, very few opportunities to do so, ...
Does the municipality have a greater chance in this case of stopping this mining via the detailed plan?
- I wouldn't think so in the long run, given that this permit has now been announced and the national interests have been determined legally, so I don't think so, answers ..."
https://thestockexchange.com.au/threads/permits.4987/post-312398
"
Last edited:
catdog
Member
I do remember that a number of the Social Democrats had refrained from taking a position on the detailed plan until the court had made their decision. These social democrats were also enough to tip the vote in favour of Talga.
Monkeymandan
Regular
Yes, I’m with you here Cosors. I understand the municipal council have to approve the Mining Plan, however that in and of itself isn’t actually required to start mining. It’s all about the permit.
They could certainly stymy the process by screwing around with the mining plan, but it would be foolhardy to do so once the courts have spoken. Those involved would certainly be kissing goodbye to any political career in the higher echelons.
cosors
👀
The Land and Environmental Court for Appeals has resumed its work. Some seem back from vacation. Important issue for today a construction sanction fee.
https://www.domstol.se/mark--och-miljooverdomstolen/mark--och-miljooverdomstolens-avgoranden/
https://www.domstol.se/mark--och-miljooverdomstolen/mark--och-miljooverdomstolens-avgoranden/
because I couldn’t give both a 
for the issue they thought was most important.
Monkeymandan
Regular
Good news. I thought it was going to be radio silence until early August. Now back to the waiting for them to get through all the higher priority appeals…
cosors
👀
"Raw materials act for critical materials approved by EU committee
08 September 2023
The European Parliament's Industry Committee, ITRE, has approved the proposal for the European Critical Raw Materials Act. There are both advantages and disadvantages to the proposal according to Sandra Lindström, Head of Public Affairs at Svemin. Advantages include tighter and more ambitious timeframes for the authorisation processes, and a clarification that the extraction of critical raw materials that constitute by-products can be classified as a strategic project. Disadvantages are an increased administrative burden regarding the requirements for the documentation of the applications for strategic projects and that strategic projects in important mining countries such as Norway, Canada and Australia would be more difficult to approve.
- It is positive that it is clarified that it should be enough for companies to comply with EU and national legislation for a project within the EU to be classified as strategic, while it is worrying with requirements that in practice would make it difficult to approve strategic projects in countries such as Canada, Norway and Australia because the requirements set for international standards are tailored to a specific international standard and do not fit the standards applied in many important mining countries, says Sanda Lindström."
https://www.bergsmannen.se/nyheter/e/6525/ramaterialakt-for-kritiska-material-godkant-av-eu-utskott/?utm_campaign=cmp_3068227&utm_source=getanewsletter&utm_medium=email
08 September 2023
The European Parliament's Industry Committee, ITRE, has approved the proposal for the European Critical Raw Materials Act. There are both advantages and disadvantages to the proposal according to Sandra Lindström, Head of Public Affairs at Svemin. Advantages include tighter and more ambitious timeframes for the authorisation processes, and a clarification that the extraction of critical raw materials that constitute by-products can be classified as a strategic project. Disadvantages are an increased administrative burden regarding the requirements for the documentation of the applications for strategic projects and that strategic projects in important mining countries such as Norway, Canada and Australia would be more difficult to approve.
- It is positive that it is clarified that it should be enough for companies to comply with EU and national legislation for a project within the EU to be classified as strategic, while it is worrying with requirements that in practice would make it difficult to approve strategic projects in countries such as Canada, Norway and Australia because the requirements set for international standards are tailored to a specific international standard and do not fit the standards applied in many important mining countries, says Sanda Lindström."
https://www.bergsmannen.se/nyheter/e/6525/ramaterialakt-for-kritiska-material-godkant-av-eu-utskott/?utm_campaign=cmp_3068227&utm_source=getanewsletter&utm_medium=email
cosors
👀
"China is haphazardly throwing away thousands of electric cars – the EU says stop
Updated: Sep 13 2023 Published: Sep 13 2023Many people have speculated as to why electric cars are lining up in China.
The EU is flooded with stray Chinese electric cars. But it risks knocking out the European car industry, says the EU's Ursula von der Leyen, who calls for an end to the car wave.
The EU is launching an investigation on Wednesday into the thousands of Chinese electric cars that have been paid for by the state with heavy subsidies and are now on their way to the European car market.
Today's PS has previously written about the huge electric car cemeteries in China.
Electric cars abandoned under moss and garbage
Thousands of vehicles hide in the abandoned parking lots, covered in weeds and garbage. They testify to both China's success and failures in the battle for the electric car market.But now China has found an area of use: They can dump the cars on the European market, and in that way put the knife in the European car industry.
Scream in the sky
But it has caused the EU Commission to cry out loud.Especially in a period when European car dealers are few and far between. The economic crisis with high inflation and high interest rates that are here to stay, few people think that they will buy a new electric car in the near future.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Wednesday that the investigation had been started to undermine the Chinese chess move.
“Their prices are kept down artificially with government subsidies. It distorts the market, and we do not accept distortion within the market, nor from outside," she said in her annual speech to the European Parliament on Wednesday."
https://www.dagensps.se/motor/kina-slumpar-bort-tusentals-elbilar-eu-sager-stopp/
Volkswagen boss: "Must accept that China has taken over".
cosors
👀
"Startup raises two billion euros for new giga battery factory
Despite the fact that the year 2023 has not been a favorable year for fundraising rounds, the startup company Verkor has managed to reach its high ambitions. The Grenoble-based company announced the other day that it had managed to raise "more than two billion euros" for the construction of its giga battery factory, which will supply the Renault group's future electric car models with electric batteries. In its latest round of fundraising, it raised 850 million euros. Public funds supplement the investment.The battery factory will be built in Dunkirk in northern France.
- We are happy and proud of the investors' trust, says Benoit Lemaignan, CEO of Verkor to the business site Les Echos."
https://www.industrinyheter.se/20230914/37796/startup-reser-tva-miljarder-euro-ny-gigabatterifabrik
Semmel
Regular
The relevant figure in that announcement was the price of anode to be between 7 and 10 $/kg. Compare that to our Talnode-C price of about 10 to 12 $/kg in the DFS. We have a production price back then of about 4$/kg. With inflation, that could well be at 5$/kg now. So we are still looking at healthy margins but the valuation of Talga post production would obviously be influenced. Well, depends on how the market develops in the future. Or maybe NVX has a sub-par product, which could also be the case. Not sure if thats likely, havnt looked into NVX in a long time.
cosors
👀
MT gives us Europeans some encouragement at the end of the article.
"Chinese EVs threaten dominance of European car giants
Sep 15, 2023The popularity of cheaper electric cars from companies such as BYD is becoming a serious problem for the likes of BMW and Volkswagen – and the EU itself.
As the world’s car makers gathered in Munich this month for the International Motor Show Germany, it was impossible not to sense the shifting tectonic plates underneath Europe’s $650 billion industry.
With COVID-19 travel restrictions now a thing of the past, Chinese execs descended in numbers. About 50 companies made the trip, more than twice as many as the previous Munich expo. It was the largest delegation China has fielded at any automotive fair.
BYD pulled out all the stops for its display at the International Motor Show Germany in Munich earlier this month. Getty
They were there to showcase China’s growing prowess and clout in the global market for cheap electric vehicles (EVs). And they were unabashed in placing their tanks on Europe’s lawn.
China’s biggest EV maker, BYD, said it was targeting a fivefold increase in overseas sales this year, and would double its count of dealer partners in Germany to 200. Its electric SUV has already become a bestseller in Sweden.
Xpeng Motors, also known as Guangzhou Xiaopeng Motors Technology, said it would sell electric sedans and SUVs in Europe from next year, starting with 15 to 20 distribution partnerships this year and doubling that in 2024.
“Xpeng is entering one of the most competitive automotive markets in the world ... with impressive technology that will define the new smart mobility era,” declared vice chairman Brian Gu.
Nio, a Shanghai-based manufacturer, is ramping up its sales and service networks in five European countries. Then there are the Trojan horses: SAIC Motor, China’s largest car maker – which owns the LDV brand of utes and vans along with British icon MG – has popular EV models. Zhejiang Geely Holding Group is in the driver’s seat at Lotus and Volvo.
The Chinese have arrived. They are backed by Beijing’s policies and money. They can tap a cheap and entirely indigenous supply chain of processed raw materials and batteries. And they have scale at home, in the world’s biggest domestic EV market.
The effects are likely to be felt around the world, including in Australia, which mines about 53 per cent of the world’s supply of lithium, virtually all of which is sold to China.
In Europe, fearful car giants sounded the alarm in Munich. Renault chief executive Luca de Meo said the Chinese were “a generation ahead” of the European car makers. “We need to catch up very, very quickly,” he warned.
BMW chief Oliver Zipse said the Europeans might not even have that chance. “The base car market segment will either vanish, or will not be done by European manufacturers,” he told the Financial Times. “I see that as an imminent risk.”
It is not just a threat to the car makers, but to the whole European Union. The industry’s turnover represents 7 per cent to 8 per cent of the bloc’s GDP, and the sector employs 13 million people.
So it’s little wonder that officials in Brussels, Paris and Berlin are as alarmed as their car makers. This week, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced that Brussels had kicked off an investigation into China’s “unfair” public subsidies to its industry.
Xpeng vice chairman Brian Gu. Bloomberg
She didn’t mince words. “Global markets are now flooded with cheaper Chinese electric cars, and their price is kept artificially low by huge state subsidies. This is distorting our market,” she told the European Parliament.
Within a year, the EU might jack up tariffs on Chinese EVs from the standard 10 per cent, possibly even matching the prohibitive US tariff of 27.5 per cent.
It’s a throw of the dice. If China retaliates, that could rebound on the German car makers – Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW – that are struggling to grow, or even retain, their 17 per cent foothold in the Chinese market.
There is also the worry that Europe may be unable to match China’s access to critical raw materials and batteries, despite Brussels’ recent frantic and expensive flurry of industrial policies and subsidies.
That could make this trade war unwinnable, ending in the same sorry capitulation that finished off the EU’s attempt to protect its solar cell manufacturers from Chinese competition.
“Europe must find a way to prevent this happening. The US is already doing it with the Inflation Reduction Act, and Europe must find a way too,” says Felipe Munoz, a global analyst at research firm JATO Dynamics.
“Otherwise it won’t be competitive for the European manufacturers. This potential invasion will be halted or controlled, maybe by tariffs. They will have to find a way.”
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. Bloomberg
The China challenge
Looking at the raw statistics, von der Leyen’s announcement might seem an overreaction. The Chinese brands have an 8 per cent market share of European EV sales, which analysts say might increase to 15 per cent by 2025 – still smaller than the Europeans’ market share in China.Chinese cars may be 20 per cent cheaper, but much of the Chinese market inroad so far has rested on sales of MGs and Volvos, which in the public consciousness are still European.
But it’s the clear trajectory that has everyone worried. The EU will ban sales of new internal combustion-engine (ICE) cars from 2035, sparking a scramble for affordable EVs. Registrations of EVs are growing at a double-digit pace, fuelled by tax breaks and other incentives for both fleet owners and private buyers.
The European car makers have seen the writing on the wall. But they face steeply rising energy costs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and a daunting task to secure the necessary inputs for their EVs. More broadly, the overhaul of their huge, complex operations – long geared towards making ICEs – has been laborious work.
“The production process of EVs is much more autonomous and contains fewer parts [than ICEs], so fewer line workers are required,” says Matthias Schmidt, founder of Schmidt Automotive Research.
“Traditional OEMs [car makers] have their hands tied until they can reduce their strong trade union workforce, which likely only takes place through natural attrition over years, not months.”
The Chinese are better prepared. Following 15 years of carefully designed policy, and five years of subsidies totalling at least $US57 billion ($89 billion), car makers have built up scale and supply chains.
A slower economy at home has now spurred the Chinese car makers to start pushing harder into overseas markets. They now account for more than half the global market, and China is for the first time posting a trade surplus in cars.
A combination of tariffs and the Inflation Reduction Act have put a wall around the US market that the Chinese might find almost insurmountable. This only adds to Europe’s allure.
The share of China’s total EV exports that land in Europe has risen from 8 per cent five years ago to 28 per cent last year. In the past year, the number of Chinese EV makers selling into Germany has risen from two to six, and their market share has tripled to 3.7 per cent, according to a recent report by Allianz.
BYD went big at the Munich motor show. Getty
“As battery EVs eventually grow to account for all new car sales in Europe, Europe-made cars are likely to be substituted by those made in China – irrespective of whether they are manufactured by a Chinese, American or European company,” Allianz analyst Aurelien Duthoit said in the report.
Allianz reckons that if European imports of Chinese-made cars hit 1.5 million vehicles by 2030, amounting to a 10 per cent market share, then key car making economies such as Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic could take a hit of up to 0.4 per cent of GDP.
Meanwhile, the Europeans are losing ground in China. Very few of the European models sold there are imported, with most made through a local joint venture. But if the Chinese brands can boost their home market share from 50 per cent now to 75 per cent in 2030, Allianz estimates that €7 billion ($11.7 billion) of the Europeans’ combined annual profit could be at risk.
A trade war would only hasten this blow, which would disproportionately hit the Germans over the less China-focused French. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the Germans are more cautious in their rhetoric.
France’s Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire welcomed von der Leyen’s announcement, saying “Europe must be able to fight back”. Standing beside him, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck was more emollient.
“It’s not about keeping high-performance, low-cost cars out of the European market,” he said. “It’s about looking to see if there are hidden, direct or indirect subsidies that create an unfair competitive advantage.”
The EU will look at whether China has been subsidising the prices of raw materials and batteries, or offering cheap loans or land.
The Europeans rev up
The onus in tackling this challenge is really on the European industry itself. “Every company has to start with itself: to innovate, to develop and at the end to perform. It’s up to us,” Volkswagen Group chief executive Oliver Blume said in Munich.Volkswagen has its ID range of electric cars, which are yet to lure most people away from a standard Golf. France’s Stellantis, which makes Citroens, Fiats and Peugeots, is trying to get stuck into the cheap end of the EV market in 2025, as is Renault. They will be hoping President Emmanuel Macron makes good on his promise to offer incentives to buyers.
BMW and Mercedes are focusing on the premium end of the market, relying on what German Chancellor Olaf Scholz calls “brand heritage” to fend off the Chinese.
Munoz says this is a genuine advantage. “Anything labelled ‘made in China’ doesn’t have a good image,” he says.
“The Chinese car makers can make huge improvements, but that’s not enough by itself to change negative perceptions among Western consumers. To change this takes not only money, but time.”
Consultants McKinsey said in a recent report that all but three of the world’s 25 most valuable car brands were European. But they had a warning for Europe: “In the age of electrification and software-defined cars, purchase criteria will change and brand rankings might get reshuffled.”
Even if the brand is great, the price still matters. With European manufacturers groaning under high energy costs, and the Chinese potentially offering consumers a decent EV for 75per cent to 80 per cent of the price of a German or French one, higher tariffs on the Chinese would come as a bit of a relief. But JATO’s Munoz warns that this would be only temporary.
Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume. Bloomberg
“They can rely on government support or incentives now, but not forever, because sooner or later they will have to sell at competitive prices,” he says.
The car makers will also be hoping that, even before any tariffs, the Chinese price advantage won’t be as large as everyone expects.
“On the market, we see that the Chinese are offering their vehicles at twice the price in our country than in China,” Blume observed.
Allianz’s report explains why. “Car makers must navigate through typical ramp-up phases including regulatory compliance, localisation, establishing sales networks with importers and dealerships, and building brand awareness.”
The Chinese will also face pressure to adhere to the net zero targets that Europe’s car industry is increasingly adopting. BYD gets a big cost advantage from sourcing 75 per cent of its inputs from within China; but this may become a liability if these parts do not meet the green thresholds of European regulators and consumers.
Europeans will want not only green inputs, but also local ones. McKinsey reckons “vertical integration” could shave 3 percentage points off European car makers’ costs; but for politicians it’s also a security issue, avoiding helpless dependence on China.
This push to bring supply chains closer to home, or at least drag them away from China, could benefit Australian companies. There are many trying to set up shop in Europe to plug this gap, such as lithium producers Vulcan Energy and European Metals Group, and battery anode maker Talga.
Talga chief executive Mark Thompson says he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the EU investigation results in higher import tariffs. But he is more sanguine about the threat from Chinese EVs.
“The transition was always going to be painful for the bigger car manufacturers, that had so much to convert over from combustion to electric,” he says. “But they’ve actually all been very dedicated to it for years now, and their fully electric models are only just starting to come out. It’s early days.”
The Chinese may be in pole position, but the continent’s EV race has only just begun. And officials in Brussels, Paris and Berlin will be doing everything they can to ensure that Europe’s thoroughbred motors can stay the course."
https://www.afr.com/companies/trans...inance-of-european-car-giants-20230914-p5e4uh
cosors
👀
OCTOBER 29 - 31,2023
MARRIOTT HOTEL, BUDAPEST
https://li-ion-battery-europe.metal.com/agenda?day_id=1
I am surprised that BASF still appears here. Actually, they have dropped the battery sector as far as I know. But maybe they are only interested in recycling.
Good to know MT will be back in Europe so soon after the last trip.View attachment 45905
OCTOBER 29 - 31,2023
MARRIOTT HOTEL, BUDAPEST
View attachment 45906
https://li-ion-battery-europe.metal.com/agenda?day_id=1
I am surprised that BASF still appears here. Actually, they have dropped the battery sector as far as I know. But maybe they are only interested in recycling.
If all goes well with the Supreme Court, late October may present the ideal timing to finally lock in those offtakes and financing.
You’re right TC. Also good to see Lars, Founder & CEO of Italvolt will be there. They could well be part of the 90% of customer relationships/testing in the pipeline, as stated by MT @ RIU in May 2023.
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