Small Glitch in Global Warming Alarmists Plans to Replace Gasoline With Electric Vehicles

We have previously discussed the horrors of the demand for cobalt by Electric Vehicle manufacturers. But it's not just cobalt that is in short supply.

Carmakers face supply bottleneck of this crucial metal

FILE PHOTO: Robotic arms assemble Tesla's Model S sedans © Reuters / Noah Berger

Demand for battery metals continues to grow, and while carmakers were concerned about a lithium and cobalt shortage in recent years, they seem more concerned about nickel nowadays.

Tesla and its battery producer partners, and other automakers and their suppliers, are worried about the longer-term supply of nickel according to a new study by BloombergNEF.

The study predicts that EV makers will be driving demand for nickel about 16 times to 1.8 million tons in the next years. 

Class-one nickel, a high-purity material used in batteries, is expected to see demand greatly outstrip supply in the next few years. That will be fueled by meeting the large Chinese EV market, and other global markets where demand is expected to grow.

One problem has been a lack of real investment in new mines for materials including nickel, Tesla’s global supply manager of battery metals, Sarah Maryssael, said at a Washington meeting in May. That could drive up prices as battery demand increases greatly.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is concerned about having enough economically viable — and available — metal to continue meeting its growing electric car demand. That will take off even more as the company taps into China’s booming markets.

“They are getting ready to have the new factory in China, and are at full capacity in North America,’’ Peter Bradford, chief executive officer of nickel producer Independence Group NL, said. “They recognize the biggest risk from a strategic supply point of view is nickel.’’

Bradford last week met with one of Tesla’s battery metals supply chain team. His company, Perth-based Independence, last year increased nickel output from its Nova mine in Western Australia. Independence will be spending as much as A$75 million ($51 million) on exploration in an effort to extend the asset’s life and find new deposits.

Bradford’s industry had been focused mainly on supplying the metal to stainless steel. By 2030, the BloombergNEF study expects that batteries will account for more than half of demand for the valuable class-one nickel.

Metal suppliers have been scrambling to find the right metal to fill that demand. Australian firm BHP, the biggest maker, is betting on bright-turquoise colored nickel sulphate. That will be taking place at its nickel refinery south of Perth, with plans to potentially carry out the industry’s largest expansion.

The mining company had been seeking a buyer for its Nickel West facility, but reversed course recently after reviewing growth forecasts in lithium-ion batteries and a scarcity of high-quality nickel supply.

The challenge will be there to mass produce more affordable EVs and meet consumer demand in China and other key markets; battery costs have been the biggest stumbling block to reaching that sales volume. Increasing government mandates to bring in more EVs is part of the forecast, with incentives being offered and alliances being forged to increase public charging stations.

Tesla is seeing car buyers impatiently waiting for delivery of their Model 3 electric cars. The company is betting that its upcoming Model Y will be in strong demand, and is already preparing to have production capacity in place more in line with the popular Model 3.

The Model 3 looks like a smaller version of the Model S, and the Model Y will be available to car shoppers interested in the crossover SUV functionally of the Model X, but also want to have a more affordable and smaller alternative. Musk is also promising that the Model Y will have 300 miles of range, which would address a critical concern for buyers ready to leave their gasoline-powered cars behind for the first time ever.

A new Wood Mackenzie study sees the metals problem much broader, with lithium, cobalt, and nickel supplies to be worst hit over the next few years.

Supply for the three metals is fine for now, said Gavin Montgomery, research director at Wood Mackenzie. Short-term market prices have fallen, and that will deter producers from increasing supply to meet future demand, he said.

But long-term that will change. Demand is expected to grow so rapidly with car makers taking on their ambitious goals to mass produce EVs, that metal suppliers won’t be able to keep up, Montgomery said.

Automakers and their battery partners need to start planning for it now.

“Getting the quantity of nickel that (electric vehicles) will need by the mid-2020s will be a challenge ... with lead times often up to 10 years, investment needs to happen now,” Montgomery said.

The Man Behind Venezuela’s Economic Mess & Chavez's Stinking Rich Daughter

Maduro Places Confidence in a Spanish Marxist Professor He Calls

'the Jesus Christ of the Economy'

“The fact that the government continues to insist on 21 century socialism can be attributed to Alfredo Serrano” (Misión verdad)

The main culprits of the most radical measures taken by the Venezuelan government come from Spanish politician Alfredo Serrano Mancilla, according to Spanish Adviser to President Nicolás Maduro Deputy Carlos Valero.

Valero told the newspaper ABC in Spain that Serrano “is the author of the latest and most radical economic measures undertaken by the Chavistas, who have only managed to impoverish the country.”

Expropriations, the seizure of businesses, “urban agriculture” on balconies, the soviet supply system and forced employment in the public agriculture sector are all a result of Serrano’s influence.

Earlier this year, the newspaper El Nacional reported about “Alfredo Serrano Mancilla, the Spaniard who pulls the strings of the Venezuelan economy.” The newspaper pointed out the Podemos member is one of the most influential figures in Maduro’s economic cabinet.

“The fact that the government continues to insist on the economic model of socialism in the 21st century, despite the queues, shortages and inflation is entirely from him,” the paper claimed.

Mancilla “is the last redoubt that the Spanish populist left keeps in Venezuela,” according to ABC.

He is the coordinator of the Center for Political and Social Studies (CEPS), a Spanish anti-capitalist organization that provides political consulting. He has consulted for the governments of Spain, Venezuela, Ecuador, El Salvador and Bolivia. CEPS is currently listed as an “appendix” of Podemos. Several of its leaders operate within the Spanish leftist party (most notably Podemos leaders Pablo Iglesias and Iñigo Errejón).

Mancilla studied economics in Barcelona, Spain and in Quebec, Canada. He arrived in Venezuela 10 years ago with a group of leftist Spanish teachers (Juan Carlos Monedero, Pablo Iglesias, Luis Alegre, Roberto Viciano Pastor) who were attracted to the idealistic thought of Hugo Chavez.

Mancilla began a friendly relationship with the Marxist political intelligentsia of Venezuela until meeting with then-Planning Minister Ricardo Menendez, after which he began rubbing shoulders with even more important higher-ups.

In 2014, he presented the paper The Economic thought of Hugo Chavez, for which President Nicolás Maduro praised him and introduced him to the elite of the regime. Mancilla immediately became an advisor to Maduro.

From there, Mancilla became a kind of ideologue of Chavismo. He wrote speeches for President Maduro, including the most important ones presented to the National Assembly.

Mancilla, according to El Nacional, has solidified the idea that the socialist economic model of the 21st century is unquestionable, and that any failure is the result of attacks from the opposition.

That sounds like Marxist paranoia to me.

“Clinging to the hope of an economic miracle to save his country, Maduro has placed his trust in a dark Spanish Marxist professor whom he calls ‘the Jesus Christ of the economy,'” The Wall Street Journal recently reported.

ABC noted Alfredo Serrano Mancilla is the man behind the Maduro’s constant refusal to allow humanitarian aid into Venezuela.

“Serrano said he wanted to hide the crisis and not allow the entry of humanitarian aid. Even NGOs like Doctors Without Borders cannot act in Venezuela without asking permission from authorities.”

Chávez’s Daughter Is Filthy Rich,

and That Shouldn’t Be a Surprise

Inequality in Socialist Venezuela Is a Feature, Not a Bug

The accumulated wealth of Hugo Chávez's daughter is not the result of covert capitalism. 
(Albaciudad)

By Ezequiel Spector

Español - The alleged fortune of María Gabriela Chávez, daughter of the late Hugo Chávez, has recently stirred up controversy in Venezuela. Media reports suggest that Chávez’s daughter has US$4.2 billion stored in bank accounts in the United States and Andorra, which might make her the wealthiest person in Venezuela.

Critics have pointed to a supposed inconsistency: how can one support the so-called Bolivarian Revolution while enjoying such enormous riches? However, the premise of this critique is flawed, because it assumes that Chavismo emerged to uphold rights and equality.

In countries like Venezuela, the inequality between crony politicians and common citizens is evident. The first group enjoys considerable privileges, while the latter struggles to avoid drowning in a sea of inflation, shortages, and unemployment. The ruling class’s friends can travel and have access to foreign goods. Common Venezuelans must make do with “shopping” at mostly empty supermarkets.

But make no mistake, Venezuelan leaders are not covert capitalists. Their wealth does not come from outperforming their competitors in the provision of superior, affordable goods and services. It is not the result of taking risks and investing their own capital.

They are rich because the government has awarded them privileges and subsidies, at the expense of the average citizen. That’s 21st-century socialism’s social mobility. They don’t want capitalism, since their socialist system has already made them quite comfortable.

When defenders of the republic call for separation of powers, an independent judiciary, a nonpartisan central bank, and respect for civil liberties, they don’t do it out of a whim or to advance some abstract theory.

They do it because, among other things, they know that is the path to economic progress. They are aware that when those values are upheld, poverty and unemployment rates decrease, upward social mobility picks up, and individual potential is unleashed. They also realize that high concentration of power occur when those values are undermined.

Australians, Canadians, and Swedes are not inherently better than Latin Americans. The wealth of nations has nothing to do with national character. It comes down to institutional frameworks: some choose to promote trade, rule of law, and republican values, and others give their leaders absolute power.

The defense of republican values and individual liberties is not some foreign concept, divorced from citizenship. It is the defense of citizens themselves, and the economic elite in Venezuela know it. That’s why they choose to keep their fortunes in republican countries, where they know there is no authoritarian ruler that will arbitrarily take it all away.

However, they don’t apply that knowledge to the Latin American countries where they grew up. If they did, an open economy would not allow them to live so comfortably; they would have to compete in a free market.

They reject capitalism not because they think it is inherently unjust, but because they are well aware that it is the only system that would put their talents to the test. And that is something which they greatly fear.

María Gabriela Chávez’s alleged wealth, and other inequalities present in Venezuela, are not anomalies, or symptoms of a “poorly implemented” socialist system. They are, in fact, the inevitable consequences of socialism.

That is a lesson Latin America has yet to learn.


Ezequiel Spector is a lawyer, PhD candidate, and professor at the University Torcuato Di Tella. He was also a visiting scholar at the University of Arizona and the Charles III University of Madrid. Follow @ezspector.