Topperke 3 mei 2018 om 00:13:
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EN het meest interessante stukje uit de conference call vind ik:
The vanadium market, in the last 10 years, was very interesting. There was a surge in vanadium production from vanadium-containing ores in China, iron ore containing expanding steel production. That’s led to a surge in vanadium inventory. And the last 5 years, year-by-year, that inventory, excess inventory, has been depleted year-by-year. It’s now negative. The long vanadium price slump in the last years was a result of the feeling of the customers that they can always find supply.
That is over. And by the way, that was experienced by the world’s, I think, largest stationary battery in Dalian province in China, which is a battery-rich – has a need for 4,000 tons of vanadium, which is maybe 5% of the world production. And when it was completed and the vanadium fill had to be bought by the operator of this very large stabilization battery project, the market was not there.
The operators went into the market with 1,000 tons and that then was contributing to the surge. We have, in vanadium, a situation where the market is shifting. I don’t know that I’m right, but I have no information that this is short-term phenomenon. The vanadium – and I have written this in my Chairman’s letter of the annual report, inexpensive ways that the vanadium is on the crossroads of several trends, the last of which of course is that vanadium is an ideal material for great stabilization energy storage strategies, which are necessary if you want to have a renewable energy country or economy.
So that is clear, and that is a new demand. And when this new demand, exemplified by this very large battery project in China, came at the market, it was clear that, that has done it. Now we are waiting for the second 1,000 tons. When the guy comes back into the market, he’s now raising money in order to complete his project in Dalian province, then I think he has bought 1,000 tons, but he has 3,000 tons to go. These 3,000 tons are not existing right now in the market. So I think we have solid times ahead.