Toyota Tsusho fears other countries may follow Chile and curb raw minerals exports

Toyota Tsusho

27/04/2023 11:16

By Yuka Obayashi
       TOKYO, April 27 (Reuters) - Japanese trading house
Toyota Tsusho Corp  8015.T  is concerned that there may be more
moves by countries like Chile to restrict exports of raw
minerals such as lithium, its chief financial officer said on
Thursday.
    Chile's President Gabriel Boric said last week he would
nationalize the country's lithium industry, the world's second
largest producer of the metal essential in electric vehicle
batteries, to boost its economy and protect its environment.
    "Like what happened in Chile, there could be more cases of
restrictions on export of raw materials due to growing
nationalism in emerging countries," CFO Hideyuki Iwamoto told a
news conference.
    But the trading company, which supplies some materials to
Japan's top automaker Toyota Motor Corp  7203.T , believes that
its business risk could be reduced by processing raw minerals
such as lithium locally before exporting, Iwamoto said.
    Toyota Tsusho, together with Australian miner Orocobre,
began production of lithium carbonate at a mine on the Olaroz
salt flat in Argentina in 2014, and decided to expand the
production capacity in 2018.
    "We face difficulties in Argentina due to high inflation,
but there is no similar (export curb) problems at the moment as
it is an export industry," Iwamoto said.
    Battery grade lithium prices  LTHc1  touched record levels
of $85,000 a tonne in December, but have slumped by nearly 50%
since then. That price is still relatively high, around double
the price in October 2021.
    "Compared to the previous year, the lithium prices have
halved, but the stock prices of lithium-producing companies have
not fallen, so we expect the lithium prices to rise slightly
from the current level in the medium to long term," Iwamoto
said.
    
    ($1 = 6.9234 Chinese yuan renminbi)

 (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Susan Fenton)
 ((Yuka.Obayashi@thomsonreuters.com; +813-4520-1265;))