What Tesla will do in Mozambique for battery graphite
Graphite: Tesla is turning to Mozambique to reduce its dependence on China. The article by Giuseppe Gagliano
According to CNBC, Tesla is turning to Mozambique for a key component in its electric car batteries, in what analysts believe is a one-of-a-kind deal designed to reduce its reliance on China for graphite.
THE TESLA-SYRAH AGREEMENT
Elon Musk's company signed a deal last month with Australia's Syrah Resources, which operates one of the world's largest graphite mines in the southern African country.
DETACHMENT FROM CHINA
The deal is part of Tesla's plan to increase its capacity to produce its own batteries so it can reduce its dependence on China , which dominates the global graphite markets.
THE GENERAL FRAMEWORK
Naturally, the choice of the American entrepreneur is part of a much more complex geopolitical architecture than the one put in place by the United States to be increasingly independent from China.
Finally, let's not forget that China is Tesla's largest global market. It has a giant factory near Shanghai and sells around 450,000 vehicles a year compared to around 350,000 in the United States.
THE ROLE OF AFRICA
But beyond these considerations, two aspects remain central to underline: on the one hand the determining role of Africa is confirmed once again (not only in the oil sector), and on the other hand the decisive role of the mining industries. With all the environmental implications that all this entails.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/tesla-mozambico-grafite-batterie/ on Fri, 21 Jan 2022 08:25:46 +0000.