China has played a great game with Lithium, but is slow to react: CEO

China leads the way on lithium, but other countries aren’t fast enough to match its dominance, he said. american lithium.

Simon Clarke spoke on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday about how China has secured a strong position within the industry.

“I think the Chinese have – which means you have to take your hat off. They played a great game,” he said.

“For decades, they’ve locked some of the best assets in the world, quietly run their business, and developed the knowledge to build lithium-ion technology,” he added. “And we were very slow to react to it.”

he is from the United States Inflation control lawand many other measures meant that people were “starting to wake up to it.”

Alongside its use in mobile phones, computers, tablets, and many other gadgets that are synonymous with modern life, lithium is important for the batteries that power electric vehicles.

China certainly has a dominant power in this area.

among them World Energy Outlook 2022 ReportAccording to the International Energy Agency, the country accounts for about 60% of the world’s lithium chemical supply. China also produces three-quarters of his total lithium-ion batteries, According to the IEA.

As demand for lithium grows, major economies are looking to boost their own supplies and reduce their dependence on other parts of the world, including China.

The stakes are high. “Lithium and rare earths will soon become more important than oil and gas,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a translation of her State of the Union address in September.

Besides addressing security of supply, von der Leyen also stressed the importance of processing.

“Today, China dominates the world’s processing industry,” she said. “Almost 90% … of rare earth[s] 60% of the lithium is processed in China. ”

For these reasons, many companies in Europe are considering developing projects focused on securing supply.

Mining giant headquartered in Paris Imerys,for example, Develop a lithium extraction project It is located in the heart of France and is home to a facility called Britain’s first large-scale lithium refinery. It is set to be located in the north of England.

American Lithium’s Clark predicts continued geopolitical competition within the sector.

“There are real initiatives to take part of the supply chain back from … China,” he said.

“I think China is in a very dominant position. It will be very difficult to do that.