News

Unlike most lithium miners, the world's second-largest producer, Chile's Sociedad Química y Minera (SQM), is ramping up capacity expansion despite the glut in the market, which has crushed lithium prices over the past year. SQM, which reported this week much lower earnings for Q4 and for full-year 2023, plans $1.4 billion in investments through 2025 to expand lithium capacity projects in Chile as it bets on continued lithium demand and a rebound in prices at some point later this decade.    Following the yearly results and the…
As it accelerates its green transition, the U.S. is looking to become a major player in the international semiconductor market, to become more competitive with Asia, the world’s biggest producer and consumer. The 2022 bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act introduced a high level of public funding for research and manufacturing into semiconductors in the U.S. This supports the overarching aims of establishing the country as a major manufacturing hub and strengthening the supply chains that aid the green transition. Now, some government representatives…
Via Metal Miner The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, is due to examine a request to extend a 25% safeguard on a range of steel imports. Steel news reports that the EC received a request from 14 member states of the 27-member bloc on January 12. This request aimed to establish if an extension of the current safeguard measure and its prospective timeline would be necessary. “The request contains sufficient evidence suggesting that the safeguard measure continues to be necessary to prevent or remedy serious injury…
Countries worldwide are accelerating the closure of their coal plants, as governments and private companies plough money into growing the global renewable energy capacity, supporting a gradual transition away from fossil fuels. Coal is expected to be the first of the fossil fuels to go, having been deemed to be the world’s dirtiest energy resource. However, the move away from coal is not so easy for some countries in Asia that remain heavily dependent on it. Yet, several advanced and developing economies, such as China, India and Indonesia,…
Analysts and energy industry executives are sounding the alarm about underinvestments in oil and gas exploration. This has been going on for years, and it is a recipe for shortages down the road. But despite the industry as a whole spending less money on exploration and drilling only where it is virtually certain it would hit oil, exploration continues—especially offshore. In 2023, oil and gas companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico announced eight new discoveries in the deepwater section of the area, Offshore Magazine reported earlier…

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