With an annual traded value of around $35 billion, nickel would probably be categorized by most as a medium-sized commodity. For the past few decades it has really had quite a low profile, perhaps due to its mainly industrial use as an alloying agent in stainless steel production. But excitement and chatter has been building around nickel sulfate in particular, due to its critical role in battery chemistry. S&P Global Platts Pricing Director for APAC Metal Markets Julien Hall talks to Platts battery metals experts Joyce Zhang and Jianong Ong for an overview of nickel use in electric vehicle batteries, the main fundamental drivers in the market, and how the pricing behaves, to get a better sense of how hot the nickel market really is.

Overall global EV sales have been weaker in 2020, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic hitting sales in Asia, although European sales are notably up year on year, with European governments employing a number of incentives and subsidies to encourage car buyers to switch over to EVs. In the latest Battery Metals Podcast, S&P Global Platts senior pricing specialists Emmanuel Latham and Jacqueline Holman discuss the subsidies and incentives in place for electric vehicles and their impact on sales and uptake.

As the 2020 wildfire season continues to inflict damage across the American West, a key question will be how much, and how fast, the battery storage sector can mobilize to reinforce the power grid in California and elsewhere. S&P Global Market Intelligence examines the prospects of battery storage technology in our latest episode featuring Fluence Energy LLC COO John Zahurancik; Dan Finn-Foley, head of energy storage with consultancy Wood Mackenzie's energy transition practice and Dharik Mallapragada, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative. Co-hosts Dan Testa, Allison Good and Taylor Kuykendall are veteran journalists with broad expertise covering the utility, oil and gas and mining sectors. Be sure to subscribe to Energy Evolution on your favorite platform to catch our latest episodes!

As calls for racial justice grow across the U.S., the impacts of energy infrastructure projects on communities of color are also getting more attention. Does the cancellation of a major project like the Atlantic Coast gas pipeline mark a turning point for the movement? In this episode, S&P Global Market Intelligence's Energy Evolution podcast team spoke about the implications for the sector with experts Jean Su of the Center for Biological Diversity and University of Michigan Professor Tony Reames, as well as community activists Vicki Dobbins and Richard Walker.  Co-hosts Dan Testa, Allison Good and Taylor Kuykendall are veteran journalists with broad expertise covering the utility, oil and gas and mining sectors. Subscribe to Energy Evolution to catch upcoming episodes!

For some time, many lithium-ion industry participants believed LFP (lithium iron phosphate) would be progressively phased out from electric vehicles due to its intrinsic lower energy density compared with nickel-rich chemistries. However, technology improvements -- coupled with the current market dynamics in China -- have put LFP back in the story. Henrique Ribeiro and Emmanuel Latham discuss the implications of this trend to the battery metals space.

Local governments around the United States are making it more difficult to include natural gas as a fuel option in new building construction. S&P Global Market Intelligence senior reporter Tom DiChristopher joins the podcast with interviews about the varied approaches communities are taking on natural gas infrastructure and how the industry is responding. 

NanoGraf Technologies CEO Dr Francis Wang talks to S&P Global Platts senior pricing specialist Jacqueline Holman about the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on China’s dominance in the battery metal supply chain, as well as the challenges and opportunities of the supply chain becoming more global.

The battery metals industry has welcomed China’s two-year extension of subsidies for new energy vehicles, but the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented EV sales from picking up as expected. In this edition of S&P Global Platts’ monthly Battery Metals podcast, Jacqueline Holman and Henrique Ribeiro discuss how the new Chinese policy works and what can be expected for EV sales and battery metals going forward.

The coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc on the world economy. Could the global energy transition and the jobs that come with it be a part of the cure? Former U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz believes it will be. He is behind a new initiative to develop the framework for a modern energy economy that prioritizes the creation and preservation of high-quality jobs. Energy Evolution called the former Obama Administration official to talk about the potential of this new effort, which energy sources will be a part of the jobs revolution, the role government can play to encourage new energy technology and more.

S&P Global Platts Battery Metals podcast looks at how cobalt markets are faring during the current coronavirus pandemic. Emmanuel Latham is joined by Battery Metals editor Melvin Goh to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on Chinese cobalt sulfate refining, the developing situation in the DRC, anticipated market developments and what this all means for cobalt prices.