The Story of China’s Jump on the U.S. in the Lithium Triangle
The first thing to know is that Chinese companies have shown up in Argentina
Last month, the CEO of China’s Jiankang Auto showed up in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires to follow up on a big deal he had signed — for an ongoing supply of battery-grade lithium for China’s insatiable electric vehicle industry. A few weeks later, BMW signed its own deal for Argentine lithium, a $334 million agreement for supply starting next year.
But Argentina, part of an oblong-shaped triad of Latin American countries possessing about two-thirds of the planet’s lithium, is no longer satisfied being the mere object of supply-desperate countries and companies out to win the global electric vehicle race. It wants to be a bigger player, and it is leveraging its lithium to get there.
The goal: to make Argentina a hub for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries and EVs for the South American market, Matias Kulfas, the country’s minister of production, told me in a video call to Buenos Aires last night. “We don’t want Argentina to be left out of the process,” Kulfas said, “because we know Argentina is in a position to hold an important place in the process.”
