INTL FERRO-ALLOYS CONF: Batteries to outpace steel in boosting demand growth for manganese, vanadium

There are tremendous opportunities for manganese and vanadium in the global trend of electrifications, and the battery sector will outpace the steel industry in terms of boosting demand growth for those materials, delegates heard at Fastmarkets' International Ferro-alloys virtual conference on Tuesday November 10.

Competitive cost and comparatively diverse supply are likely to dictate the shift in the adoption of different chemistries in batteries, panelists told delegates.
"At the end of the day, everything will come down to the cost and price," Ken Hoffman, leader of McKinsey EV Battery Materials Research Group said.
Since nickel is becoming more scarce while its demand from the battery industry is getting increasingly stronger, the nickel price will rise inevitably, and that will in return cause the supply chain to shift to other battery metals such as manganese, which has a 10 times bigger market than nickel and is more diverse in terms of geology than nickel as well, according to Hoffman.

The shift to different chemistries or substituting some chemistries in the battery supply chain occurs partially due to socioeconomic impacts, Mitchell Smith, chief...

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