Market

We'd like to ask you: what could unite such countries as South Korea, Japan or China and... Ukraine? I will answer this question at the end.

We are sure that even though our business is aimed at cooperation with foreign companies, Ukraine will be the first country to profit from our technology. The vital economic benefit for Ukraine will lie in the fact that the government will avoid expenses on dealing with battery waste. On the contrary, waste batteries will become part of the country’s energy security system and profit the economy. After all, if the waste battery problem is not solved in a modern technological way, hundreds of tonnes of valuable resources will be wasted and the environment contaminated to the point of the global catastrophe, with the price for the mined raw materials skyrocketing and hundreds of countries falling behind in terms of carbon neutral technological development.

From the Ukrainian perspective it is also clear that the country will either buy batteries from foreign companies to power anything from hair clippers to infrastructure objects, or, through us, it will produce its own batteries and even become one of the few players on the international battery market. Should the latter be the case, batteries produced in Ukraine will be especially attractive to the buyers thanks to a more affordable price. Since Ukrainian batteries will be produced from more affordable raw materials, the price of 1 kWh will also be more affordable than in the case of mined or traditionally recycled ones.

However, even if we stop at just recovering the raw materials, their affordable price and sustainability will become our unique value proposition and eventually reflect themselves on the global CO2 emissions balance. In other words, one way or another, our technology will positively influence economy and the environment in Ukraine and all over the world.

In the case of battery recycling, it is important to take into account the specifics of the market. First and foremost, there is no “local” market in Ukraine: the number of companies engaged in battery production is extremely limited, with up to 60% of the market firmly in the hands of Chinese companies. Together with manufacturers from South Korea, they effectively dominate the global market. Namely, Chinese CATL has 37% of the world market’s share, BYD – 16%, CALB – 5% of the market; South Korean companies LG Chem, SK ON and Samsung SDI have 12%, 5% and 4% respectively. Japan is represented in this market only by Panasonic with 4% of the market share. All other companies in the world, including Tesla and Our Next Energy from the US and Northvolt in Sweden, share 17% of the market. Therefore, if our business will only focus on the recovery of cathode and anode materials, our customers will be all the above-mentioned battery manufacturers.

However, if we will not only recycle, but produce batteries in Ukraine, our main buyers will be car manufacturers as well as energy storage system companies. The most serious barrier to entry in the battery recycling and manufacturing market is the cost of equipment. Broadly speaking, the investment needed reaches tens of millions of euros.

Therefore, the production of batteries will not be our focus on the early stages of development. At the start, we are going to establish ourselves as suppliers of raw materials for big battery concerns. We have already had interviews with the representatives of South Korean companies SK ON and Samsung SDI in Ukraine. They are ready to buy raw materials at a price of one thousand euros a tonne and consider such an offer financially competitive. Therefore, as soon as we certify our technology and have the quality of our product officially inspected, we will be able to build a full-scale plant thanks to the attracted investment and start supplying our customer with raw materials. For the certification and inspection processes to take place, we require 3 to 7 million euros of funds, and the funds necessary for the plant construction will depend on the number of investors and an expected demand.

The geography of our customer network will grow together with our profits. As we have mentioned before, we will start as a raw materials supplier working with South Korean, Chinese and European battery manufacturers with production facilities located in Europe. However, within the first ten years of operation we plan on establishing our own battery production complex, with European, Chinese and American electric car manufacturers becoming our target customers. On both stages our customers will be represented by large companies, whereas the end users will range from private individuals to international concerns.

And now to answer the question we asked at the start of the presentation. I am convinced that Ukraine can eventually become one of the centers of battery recycling and production, just like South Korea, Japan or China did.

At the end we want to leave you with just one thought. CathodeMiner can bring Ukraine to this level.