Importing Cobalt and Nickel from Australia
After a long tug-of-war, SK Innovation has concluded a contract with an Australian company for procurement of a large amount of cobalt and nickel, key raw materials for electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
SK Innovation announced on Aug. 6 that it has finally sealed a contract to purchase cobalt sulfate and nickel sulfate from Australian Mines (AM).
SK Innovation will purchase 100 percent of the cobalt and nickel from AM mines in North Queensland that is suitable for EV batteries. Under the terms of the agreement, the purchased volume will not be disclosed, and the price will be based on official prices at the London Metal Exchange (LME). SK Innovation and AM agreed to extend the seven-year contract period by an additional six years through negotiations.
Although the two sides signed a provisional contract in February 2018, they disagreed with each other about cobalt and nickel prices, and hammered out the final contract in a year and a half. Unlike the provisional one, the main contract is devoid of an option that allowed SK Innovation to acquire 19.9 percent of AM common stocks for 0.12 Australian dollars per share.