And what's this about? Sure. So we have
at least five different Chinese companies that announced a big
investment in South Korea. They are saying they are
going to build a big battery plant jointly with South
Korean companies. And the reason is as you say
that the Biden administration is pushing car makers to reduce
their reliance on Chinese minerals and then the Chinese companies
think that yeah, then maybe we can build the
plants in South Korea and then get the label made
in Korea and they are doing this just because South
Korea is one of the few countries in Asia.
They signed the free trade agreement with the United States
which is the critical condition for car makers to get
the subsidy from the Biden administration. Analysts say that
these partnerships with Chinese firms can be risky for Korean
companies because it could result in the US blocking the
JVS from any tax benefits. Yes, that's true
. So us officials are now discussing more details on
the IRA and they might consider more like tougher rules
in terms of using China's minerals in electric vehicles.
But the point is China is now dominating all kinds
of supply chains for S and I'm not talking about
just the batteries but all kinds of mining refinery and
processing all the those chemistry for batteries. So it's
not easy to exclude China from the supply chain for
now. And the US is if the US really
wants to do that, they might need to slow
down their ambitions for going green.