BOom-and-Bust All cycles look alike. Consumer whims or industrial urgency drive up demand for a product. Prices rise. Producers invest in capacity. By the time the new supply is real, it outstrips previously satisfied demand. Prices fall. Then, at some point, things get so cheap that demand surges again. And so on.
This inevitability is a relief for bosses in industries ranging from mining to chipmaking. However, this is not the case in battery manufacturing. Expectations of rising demand for electric vehicles (EVAccording to a research firm called Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, companies around the world have invested more than $520 billion in making batteries since 2018. Of course, the investment (as well as improvements in technology) has pushed battery prices down and since these make up a third of the cost of a battery EVThe demand for battery-powered cars is rising. But it is not enough to motivate motorists to adopt electric vehicles. And so the industry is facing a slowdown without ever seeing much of a boom.