Is the U.S. falling behind China in Africa’s lithium industry?

Published

2 years ago

March 9, 2023

admin

The demand for lithium is rising as it has become a critical component needed in electric vehicle batteries. In 2021, the world produced 540 thousand metric tons of lithium and by 2030 the World Economic Forum projects the global demand will reach over 3 million metric tons.

Reserves of lithium have been discovered throughout the entire African continent with Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mali all having notable supplies. The price of lithium has skyrocketed. In May 2022, the price was seven times higher than it was at the start of 2021. Mineral-rich nations like Zimbabwe are taking note.

Zimbabwe has been mining lithium for 60 years and the government estimates that its Chinese-owned Bikita Minerals Mine, which is located 300 kilometers south of the capital Harare, has about 11 million metric tons of lithium resources. The country is the sixth largest producer of lithium, and the International Trade Administration projects that once it fully exploits its known resources it could potentially meet 20% of the world’s demand.

“We’ve seen a lot of investments within the mining sector over the past few years,” said Prosper Chitambara, a development economist for the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe. “For us to realize the full potential from the mining sector, it means we have to move up the value chain.”

In December 2022, Zimbabwe passed the Base Mineral Export Control Act that banned the export of raw lithium. However, companies that are in the process of developing mines or processing plants in Zimbabwe are exempt from this ban. That includes Chinese firms Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine Resource Group and Chengxin Lithium Group which have invested $678 million into lithium projects in Zimbabwe.

“Any government in the world is bound to react when your resources are just flying in all directions,” said Farai Maguwu, director of Zimbabwe’s Center for Natural Resource Governance. “However, the lithium concentrate is still being exported lawfully out of the country. I think the government simply wanted to control the lithium that was being extracted by artisanal miners, which was not being accounted for and it was being smuggled out of the country.”

Artisanal mining, or small-scale mining, is a largely informal method where individuals use basic tools to extract minerals. The Zimbabwean government estimates that artisanal mining plays a critical role in the livelihood of over 1 million Zimbabweans.

“Artisanal miners were the most affected by the ban,” said Joseph Mujere, a lecturer in Modern African History at the University of York. “They had already accumulated loads of raw lithium that they were preparing to sell,” he said.

The Center for Natural Resource Governance estimates the government has lost nearly $2 billion in minerals smuggled across the border through artisanal mining leakage.

“There are two narratives,” Maguwu said. “The political narrative that mining is the savior of the economy. Then the grassroots narrative, which says mining is undermining our livelihoods. We sit in between. We want to see mining contribute to the economy, but not at the expense of the Zimbabwean people.”

While artisanal miners were affected by the export ban, the Chinese have benefited from its exemptions. Both the Bikita mine, which is the largest lithium mine in the country, and the Arcadia Lithium mine are Chinese owned.

In 2022, Chinese mining companies Tsingshan, China Nonferrous and Huayou Cobalt invested nearly $1.5 billion in Zimbabwe and in the same year, Sinomine Resource Group announced its plans to expand its current production at the Bikita mine by investing $200 million into building a new lithium plant.

“When we invest in the Chinese and allow them to come and do what the Zimbabweans are capable of doing, we are building China, not Zimbabwe,” Maguwu said. “Zimbabweans are saying leave room for the Zimbabwean people.”

The Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe declined to comment on this statement.

China accounts for over 70% of global EV battery production capacity, and with over 20 years of consistent commitment to African nations it has placed itself in the right position to access the resources needed to continue this trend.

“The Chinese have played for keeps,” said Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The United States, our relationship is not always permanent. The Chinese are just consistent in that way,” he said.

In December, President Joe Biden welcomed 49 African leaders to Washington, D.C., for the country’s second U.S.-African Leaders Summit and its first since the Obama administration.

“The United States is all in on Africa’s future,” Biden remarked at the summit.

The summit was seen as an important step in trying to restore relations, which were rocky during the Trump administration. Notably missing from the event, however, was Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has been under U.S. travel sanctions since 2002. Foreign Affairs Minister Frederick Shava attended in his place.

“The fact that he came is also still a signal that the U.S. is interested in keeping the door open with Zimbabwe,” Dizolele said.

While the U.S. has made its intentions clear when it comes to engaging in African business, the reality is China has sunk its roots in the continent. It will be tough for the U.S. to make up for the lost time. In 2009, China overtook the U.S. as Africa’s largest trading partner. The country has grown from $121 million in total traded goods with Africa in 1950 to $254 billion in 2021, compared to the U.S. which sat at $64 billion in 2021.

“America has not been consistent in the way it engages with Africa,” said Dizolele. “If you leave and come back 10 years later, that void you left will be filled by somebody else, so it’s important that we be consistent.”

Technology

Alphabet shares close above $200 for first time on split-adjusted basis

Published

4 hours ago

January 24, 2025

admin

Alphabet shares close above 0 for first time on split-adjusted basis

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc.

Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Alphabet shares closed at $200 per share for the first time on Friday as investors grow increasingly bullish on the company’s opportunities in artificial intelligence.

The stock gained 1.1% on Friday and a little more than 2% for the week to close at $200.21. It is up almost 6% in 2025, while the Nasdaq is up 3.3% so far this year.

Alphabet’s fresh record is on a split-adjusted basis. The company implemented a 20-for-1 stock split in 2022. At the time of that announcement, the stock was trading at about $2,750, equivalent to $137.50 after the split.

Tech’s megacap companies start reporting earnings next week, with Microsoft, Meta and Tesla scheduled to announce results on Wednesday, followed by Apple on Thursday. Alphabet is slated to report fourth-quarter results on Feb. 4.

Alphabet’s revenue in the third quarter increased 15% from a year earlier, accelerating from about 11% growth during the same period in 2024. The company generated $88.3 billion in sales in the third quarter and saw record cloud revenue.

While Alphabet faces increased competition due to advancements in generative AI, particularly from OpenAI, analysts generally view Google as a winner in AI as the company adds new features to products across its portfolio.

In a report on Friday, Morgan Stanley analysts pointed to the company’s progress of its AI agent products, Project Astra and Project Mariner, as well as its large language model Gemini 2.0 released in 2024. Still, the firm said “the utility bar to hurdle and scale” its consumer products is “high.”

In a 2025 strategy meeting with employees last month, Google executives said they expect a year of increased competition, regulatory hurdles and advancements in AI. Despite product mishaps in the first half of 2024, the second half of the year featured numerous important AI products.

Alphabet shares have gained 35% over the past year. Among tech’s highest-valued companies, the best performer has been Nvidia, up 132%, followed by Tesla at 96%. Meta and Amazon have also outperformed Alphabet, while Apple and Microsoft have underperformed. The Nasdaq has gained 29% over the past year.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

As Google Maps turns 20, it's mapping more countries and rolling out generative AI capabilities

Technology

Meta to begin testing ads on Threads, its microblogging app

Published

6 hours ago

January 24, 2025

admin

Meta to begin testing ads on Threads, its microblogging app

Thilina Kaluthotage | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Meta will begin testing ads on its Threads microblogging service with a few companies in the U.S. and Japan, the company said in a blog post Friday.

The experiment marks Meta’s first run at generating revenue from Threads. Meta launched the app in July 2023 to rival X, formerly known as Twitter, which Elon Musk purchased for $44 billion in late 2022.

“We’ll closely monitoring this test before scaling it more broadly, with the goal of getting ads on Threads to a place where they are as interesting as organic content,” Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram and the Meta executive who oversees Threads, said in a post on the service.

During the test, a small number of Threads users will see ads with large images within their feeds. The test ads will resemble sponsored content that users of Facebook and Instagram typically see on those services, the blog post said.

Businesses participating in the test will also be able to access a brand-safety tool used in Meta’s Facebook, Instagram and Reels products that is designed so that brands’ sponsored content does not run alongside offensive content.

Meta’s existing “monetization policies” will apply to Threads, ensuring “content that violates our Community Standards isn’t eligible for ad adjacency,” the company said.

Threads has more than 300 million monthly users and three out of four people on Threads follow at least one business on their personal feeds, the company said in the blog post.

A $5 billion market

Since Threads’ launch in 2023, some investors have said they believe the platform could eventually become a revenue source for Meta comparable to Twitter prior to Musk’s acquisition. In 2021, Twitter’s annual revenue hit $5 billion.

Meta Chief Financial Officer Susan Li told analysts in October that the company has been “pleased” with Threads’ “growth trajectory” but is not expecting the product to quickly become a major business.

“Specifically, as it pertains to monetization, we don’t expect Threads to be a meaningful driver of 2025 revenue at this time,” Li said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

Meta will reveal more information about third-party advertising verification tools and support for more languages “in the coming months,” the company said.

The Threads ads announcement comes after Meta earlier this month announced it would relax its content-moderation guidelines and shuttered its third-party fact-checking program as part of an effort to allow more “free expression” on its platform.

The announcement also follows a shake-up in the social media landscape after Apple and Google stopped distributing TikTok through its app stores in compliance with a law signed by former President Joe Biden in April 2024 requiring parent company ByteDance to divest the social app or see it face an effective ban in the U.S.

“The launch of Threads ads just weeks after Meta’s content moderation makeover will raise advertiser eyebrows,” said Jasmine Enberg, eMarketer principal analyst. “But the volatility at TikTok is spurring brands to seek alternatives, and Meta isn’t going to pass up an opportunity to throw Threads into the mix.”

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

Rep. Khanna on TikTok: No evidence of systematic algorithmic interference by the Chinese government

Technology

Twilio shares pop 22% and head for biggest gain since Covid pandemic on growth forecast

Published

8 hours ago

January 24, 2025

admin

Twilio shares pop 22% and head for biggest gain since Covid pandemic on growth forecast

Twilio CEO Khozema Shipchandler speaks at Twilio’s Signal event in Sao Paulo on Aug. 14, 2024.

Courtesy: Twilio

Twilio shares soared more than 20% on Friday and headed for their biggest gain since the early days of the Covid pandemic after the cloud communications software vendor issued an uplifting profit forecast for the coming years.

The stock jumped to $140.12 as of midday trading, which would be its highest close since 2022.

Twilio revealed its new guidance at an investor event Thursday, a little over a year after the company named Khozema Shipchandler as CEO. Shipchandler, who had been Twilio’s president and before that spent 22 years at GE, replaced co-founder Jeff Lawson after a battle with activist investors.

Twilio now sees its adjusted operating margin widening to between 21% and 22% in 2027 as part of a three-year framework for guidance. That’s higher than Visible Alpha’s 19.68% consensus. Twilio’s adjusted operating margin in the most recent quarter was 16.1%.

At Thursday’s event, company executives committed to generating $3 billion in free cash flow over the next three years, compared with approximately $692 million in free cash flow for 2022, 2023 and 2024. The Visible Alpha consensus for Twilio’s 2025 through 2027 was $2.76 billion.

“If we execute well in 2025, I think we write our own story from 2026 on,” Shipchandler told CNBC ahead of the investor gathering.

Twilio, which sends text messages and emails for customers, did not issue a revenue growth target for 2027 at its Thursday event.

But Shipchandler did tell analysts at the investor event that “we’re orienting the company to deliver against double-digit growth over time.”

For 2025, the company said it expects $825 million to $850 million in free cash flow and the same amount in adjusted operating income, with 7% to 8% revenue growth year over year. The Visible Alpha consensus was $814 million in adjusted operating income and about $808 million in free cash flow. The 2025 revenue forecast was in line with LSEG consensus.

Twilio went public in 2016 as a high-growth software company taking advantage of the transition to the cloud. It was one of the big early beneficiaries of the Covid remote work boom as more companies relied on mobile communications to keep in touch with employees and clients. The stock surged more than 240% in 2020.

But in 2022, the stock lost more than 80% of its value as investor focus shifted to profit over growth to reckon with rising interest rates and soaring inflation. Twilio cut 17% of its workforce in early 2023, and activist investors Anson Funds and Legion Partners Asset Management agitated for a sale of Twilio or one of its business units, CNBC reported.

Since activist firm Sachem Head Capital Management won a Twilio board seat in April, the company’s stock has jumped about 81%, as revenue growth has accelerated and losses have narrowed.

By expanding into new areas, such as conversational artificial intelligence, Twilio says it can sell into a $158 billion total addressable market by 2028, compared with $119 billion when only focusing on the communications and customer data platform categories.

Twilio’s preliminary results for the fourth quarter show 11% revenue growth, with adjusted operating income that exceeds the top end of the $185 million to $195 million range that the company issued in October. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected 7.9% revenue growth and, according to Visible Alpha, the adjusted operating income consensus was about $190 million.

Baird analysts William Power and Yanni Samoilis upgraded their stock to the equivalent of buy from the equivalent of hold in a Friday note to clients, raising their price target to $160 from $115. The analysts said they “expect a potential beat-and-raise cadence to continue to push shares higher, particularly with the strengthening profitability, cash flow, and capital returns.”

WATCH: Twilio CEO says its time to supercharge innovation cycle