Europe must cooperate with China in the field of batteries

Christel Bories, CEO of Eramet, a producer of manganese, lithium, nickel and mineral sands, and Bart Sap, CEO of Umicore, a company specialising in the production and recycling of non-ferrous metals, argue in an interview with the Financial Times that Europe will no longer be able to catch up with China in the battery sector and that the best strategy for EuropeEurope is to cooperate with China and develop the supply chain needed to produce batteries in Europe, given that China is twenty years ahead of Europe in this field. For its part, the Trump administration is seeking to catch up and build an American battery industry based on control of the production of minerals critical to their manufacture.