Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
UK companies which import critical minerals will be given greater financial support in Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves budget next week, in an effort to bolster British industries and reduce their reliance on China.
Importers of lithium, graphite and cobalt for use in manufacturing in the UK will be granted access to UK Export Finance, a state body that usually helps British exporters and their buyers with financing and insurance, people familiar with the matter said. They will only be eligible for the support if they hold long-term contracts with UK exporters, a move that will benefit the defense, aerospace, electric vehicle and renewable energy industries, they said, asking not to be named discussing measures to be announced in the Oct. 30 budget.
Western countries in recent years have been stepping up efforts to secure supplies of critical minerals that are crucial to advanced manufacturing but are currently dominated by China. Reeves’s initiative next week will make it easier for UKEF to secure finance contracts for suppliers in Commonwealth countries who have large mineral deposits, such as Australia, the people said. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is holding a series of bilateral meetings on trade and economic growth at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Samoa this week.
Reeves is preparing to unveil a package of tax rises and further borrowing in Labour’s first budget in 14 years. She’s seeking to raise some £40 billion ($52 billion) to help fund party priorities like the National Health Service and to plug a fiscal void that she blames on her Conservative predecessors. Reeves has also been debating changing the measure of debt used to inform the country’s fiscal rules, freeing up as much as an extra £50 billion of government spending on infrastructure.
While the government didn’t specify which companies it expects the move on export finance to benefit, manufacturers such as jet engine maker Rolls Royce Holdings Plc are significant users of imported metals, and Indian firm Tata Motors Ltd. is building a battery plant in southwest England that will require lithium supplies.
Labour is also relying on attracting on an influx of private investment into the UK to get the economy firing and spur the growth needed to generate more tax income. The government said it drummed up £63 billion at its international investment summit earlier this month, though some of that had previously been committed.
On Friday in Samoa, Starmer unveiled an additional £1 billion investment in the UK property market by Aware Super, an Australian fund and Delancey Real Estate. AustralianSuper, the country’s biggest pension fund, is also preparing to bolster its international investment team in London, expecting to manage £250 billion from its London office by 2035, the UK government said in a statement.
Starmer hosted a business meeting with AustralianSuper chief executive Paul Schroder, Bank of America chair Brian Moynihan and Lloyd’s of London CEO John Neal in Samoa on Thursday.
(By Ellen Milligan)
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