Negative pressure arising from delays in the electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage markets have reduced the demand for Umicore's cobalt cathodes materials, Umicore chief executive officer Marc Grynberg said during a conference call on Tuesday April 23.
The previous projections of 100,000 metric tonnes of cathode materials sales in 2019 and 175,000 metric tonnes of capacity by the end of 2021 are now more likely to be achieved with a delay of 12-18 months, Grynberg added. Demand patterns for cathode materials have deteriorated in the past couple of months, in China and Korea in particular, Grynberg said."In China, the largest EV market in the world, the slowdown has been more pronounced, with the demand for EVs considerably decreasing from the levels of the second half of 2018."The change in subsidy mechanism, which was announced in March and is taking effect in April, is likely to keep EV sales under pressure, the CEO added."The same trend is...