The agreement covers the supply (at market price) from Norilsk to BASF of raw materials for the production of battery materials to go into the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, principally for the electric vehicle market.
The big plus point of this deal would seem to me to be the stability of supply of metals – mainly, I assume, cobalt and nickel – for BASF’s production. It doesn’t, of course, cover lithium but, as we have discussed before, that market is still very immature and fixing any manufacturer’s position in it is still I would suggest a long way off.
But security...
