Guillermo Rosales, president of the Mexican Association of Automotive Distributors (AMDA), says in an interview that the development of the new supply chains of the assemblers in the country from the assembly of electric vehicles is underway, however, the plants They will be built in the markets that offer the best operating and economic results to manufacturers. “Each company has its own plans, its developments, confidential information in its advances until they decide to make them public.”
The only lithium deposit in Mexico is in the hands of the Chinese giant Ganfeng Lithium, which operates four other deposits around the world, in China, Australia and Argentina. According to the statement on its website, the company, listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange since 2010, is the largest lithium producer globally.
In 2021, Australia became the main producer of lithium globally, with 55,000 metric tons of the mineral, followed by Chile, China and Argentina, according to the German consulting firm Statista. A ranking where Mexico does not yet appear.
Although not a single gram of the so-called “oil of the future” has yet been extracted in the country, Ganfeng Lithium has already made known its close relationship with some of the companies in the sector installed in Mexico.
German-born automaker BMW signed a contract with Ganfeng to supply lithium chemicals, which months later became a long-term supply deal. Volkswagen signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with Ganfeng in 2019 to supply it, including its suppliers, with lithium chemicals over the next decade.
The president of Camimex, Jaime Gutiérrez Núñez, points out that due to the type of deposit known and verified so far in Mexico, contained in clay, an economically viable alternative for exploitation has not yet been found, to which is added that building the factories capable of processing it and converting it into batteries would take at least seven years if action were taken now.
Meanwhile, battery manufacturers that land in North America will have to dip into lithium imported from other countries, including the United States, which has the second largest lithium deposit in the world, according to the Mining Technology ranking. “It does not necessarily have to be with lithium from Mexico. There are other countries that do have lithium, that are exploiting lithium,” says the president of the organization in an interview with Expansión after AMLO’s announcement.