They have ZERO need of lithium at all, lithium is part of NMC electrode Li(Ni,Mn,Co)O2 they purchase.

As a cathode material buyer they purchase insignificant volume compare to Panasonic, LG, Samsung, Tesla ... and there is no shortage of cathode supply. Sumitomo will soon produce above 2000 t/month cathode material to supply just Tesla. Based on 5 MUSD sales/Q, they consume less than 20 tons/month.

"Besides needing to switch the electrode manufacturing process to the environmentally friendly process to reduce costs, They need lithium. They need lithium. Lithium supply was 1 year out about 4 months ago. You can not make money buying lithium on the spot market. That is one of the reasons for the low/no production. Customers are waiting, some of them maybe.."