Electric Car Demand Boosts Companies Engaged With Lithium – by Jonathan Tirone (Bloomberg News – June 22, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Lithium demand is surging, boosting shares of the companies linked to mining and manufacturing the light metal used in electric-car batteries.

Global X Lithium & Battery Tech, an exchange-traded fund of the 27 biggest companies linked to the light metal, has increased 65 percent in the past 18 months, outperforming stock indexes of all the world’s most-developed economies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“The acceleration in technology, including electric vehicles, could push new metals a lot higher,” said Eily Ong, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence who published a model on Wednesday probing the risk-weighted demand for metals including lithium.

Among those most heavily weighted in the Globe X fund are companies including Samsung SDI Co. and Panasonic Corp., which make the lithium-ion cells used in electric-car batteries, and automobile maker Tesla Inc.

Sales of electric cars rocketed to 2 million in 2016 after being virtually non-existent just five years ago. Mainstream carmakers from Renault-Nissan Motor Co. to Volkswagen AG are pushing ahead with emissions-free vehicles.

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