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BATTERIES: Tesla’s Shanghai plant likely to require 25,900 mt of lithium hydroxide a year

  • Date: 08-09-19
  • Category: BATTERIES
  • Source: News Metal

SHANGHAI, Aug 26 (SMM) – Tesla's upcoming vehicle assembly facility in Shanghai is estimated to need 25,900 mt of battery-grade lithium hydroxide in a year if the Gigafactory produces 500,000 pure electric vehicles that are powered by high-nickel batteries, showed SMM calculations.

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: You Won’t Have Much Luck Selling Electric Cars to Germans

German consumers are also shying from electric cars because of the upfront cost. Volkswagen AG’s flagship E-Golf costs 35,900 euros ($40,000) in its basic version, excluding the environment bonus, according to the company’s website. That compares with 24,000 euros for the gasoline-run IQ.Drive Golf.

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AUTO SALES: West European car market down 8.5% in August (but SAAR up to 16.9m)

  • Date: 06-09-19
  • Category: AUTO SALES
  • Source: Just Auto

The West European car market fell by 8.5% year-on-year (YoY) in August according to data released by LMC Automotive. However, the contraction was largely explained by the comparison with the inflated market last year - which was distorted by sales being pulled forward ahead of the implementation of WLTP on 1st September 2018. After taking that into account, August was nevertheless a strong month for car sales in the region.

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ESKOM: Eskom confident of avoiding load-shedding

  • Date: 06-09-19
  • Category: ESKOM
  • Source: Engineering News

Creamer Media's Chanel de Bruyn speaks to Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Natasha Odendaal about the state of South Africa’s electricity system and whether the country faces more load-shedding over the summer months.

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PGM PRODUCERS: Implats commits to returning cash to its shareholders after profit

JOHANNESBURG – Impala Platinum (Implats) on Thursday committed to returning cash to shareholders in the next two years as higher sales volumes and stronger metal prices saw the group raking in a R1.17 billion profit in the year to end June from a R10.7 billion loss in 2018.

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ZIMBABWE: Mugabe's legacy may be remembered as one of economic destruction

  • Date: 06-09-19
  • Category: ZIMBABWE
  • Source: IOL

HARARE - Zimbabwe’s business sector will remember former leader, Robert Mugabe – who has died at the age of 95 – as a strongman and populist leader who also tried to economically empower Zimbabweans to be active in the economy despite the controversies that dogged such policies.

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ZIMBABWE: Foreign mining investors responding to Zimbabwe’s ‘come hither’ mantra

  • Date: 06-09-19
  • Category: ZIMBABWE
  • Source: Mining Weekly

When Robert Mugabe was forced to resign as Zimbabwe’s President in November 2017, the country had been estranged from much of the Western world for more than a decade, depriving it of much-needed investment and support from multilateral agencies. The consequences for the economy were dire: negative or sluggish growth, company closures, massive unemployment and a crippling cash shortage.

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PGM PRODUCERS: Miner of platinum turns to Montana

BILLINGS, Mont. -- After a prolonged strike and a string of workplace fatalities in South Africa, executives at Sibanye-Stillwater are leaning heavily on its Montana platinum mines to turn things around at one of the world's largest precious metals mining companies.

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