What Firms Need to Know About Comparative Advantage

There’s a Global Race to Control Batteries and China is Winning By Scott Patterson and Russell Gold | Feb 11, 2018

SUMMARY: In the world-wide race to lock up the supply chain for cobalt, Chinese companies dominate. Cobalt is used in producing the rechargeable, lithium-ion batteries that power laptops and smartphones and electric cars. Congo is the world’s biggest producer of cobalt and China is the largest importer of the ore. China is the world’s largest electric-car market and Chinese firms are keenly aware of Congo’s importance to electric vehicles. Companies from China now dominate the first steps in the lithium-ion battery production process and could soon be producing more than 90% of the market for refined cobalt chemicals. Congo’s freelance cobalt miners, known as creuseurs, work in dangerous conditions and often include child labor, causing some U.S. and European firms to focus on buying from industrial miners that have greater control over the production process.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/theres-a-global-race-…