Sunday May 11, 2008

Nissan, NEC to mass produce lithium-ion batteries for cars

bloomberg.com, greencarcongress.com :

Nissan and NEC will jointly spend about 20 billion yen ($194 million) for the world's first mass production of lithium-ion batteries for hybrid and electric cars. The two companies plan to build by next year a plant capable of making enough batteries for 60,000 electric cars each year, the Nikkei reported. Lithium-ion batteries are smaller and lighter and than the nickel-metal hydride batteries now used in hybrid and electric cars, the report said. Automotive Energy Supply Corp., a venture set up in April 2007 in which each of the companies hold a 50% stake, will initially produce batteries for 10,000 electric cars at a Nissan plant in Kanagawa prefecture, bordering on Tokyo, it said.

- I'd suppose this might generate considerably more buzz if those lithium-ion batteries were to go into some suitable Nissan model, like say, the 2009 Nissan Skyline GT-R (above). And this isn't exactly "new" news, as it has already been posted back in Apr 2007, but this time we do have more concrete figures in terms of money to be invested and units to be produced.

With crude oil prices seeming to break new records every single trading day, the lithium-ion battery market for hybrid cars and electric vehicles is poised to take off spectacularly. It won't be too long before many companies are making lithium-ion batteries for automotive applications and participating in a multi-billion-dollar market. In time, the Li-Ion industry might even give the LCD industry a run for its money, in terms of potential size and economic impact. 60,000 lithium-ion batteries per year is just a start. We'll need millions of these. Either we do that, or watch helplessly as crude oil continues to break resistance levels and soar into the stratosphere, setting records into the $200's, $300's and $400's.

See also :

1. Nissan, NEC to make hybrid batteries
2. Hybrid vehicle battery market to reach $2.3 billion by 2015
3. A123Systems receives $30m funding to develop hybrid Li-Ion batteries
4. Sanyo, VW to co-develop hybrid batteries
5. GM sells assets to Toyota

(2008-05-11 15:18:56 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

Crude oil caps record-breaking week by reaching $126.27 on NYMEX

This article belongs to the NYMEX crude oil price records story arc.

bloomberg.com :

Crude oil rose above $126 a barrel in New York to a record as the dollar weakened against the euro, prompting investors to buy commodities as a hedge against the currency's decline. For a fifth day oil climbed to all-time highs as the euro strengthened on signs the European Central Bank [ECB] will keep rates at a six-year high to cut inflation. Nigerian output fell to the lowest this decade in April because of a strike and attacks on oil installations. Crude oil for June delivery surged to $126.27 today [9 May 2008], the highest since futures began trading in 1983. Futures have more than doubled in the past year.

Oil at $200 is "possible if we have a continuing devaluation of the dollar with respect to other currencies," OPEC President Chakib Khelil said yesterday [8 May 2008] at a press conference in Washington. Goldman Sachs analyst Arjun N. Murti wrote in a report on May 6 that "the possibility of $150-$200 per barrel seems increasingly likely over the next six-24 months." Murti first wrote of a "super spike" in March 2005, predicting crude may trade between $50 and $105 a barrel through 2009.

- It has been an incredible week in the oil markets. Another day, another record, and at times records were being broken 2 or 3 times a day. Now this is turning into some kind of regular occurrence, this record-breaking-days-in-a-row thing. We had 5 crude oil record-breaking days in a row in Apr 2008 when it hit $117, and before that we had 7 record-breaking days in a row in Mar 2008 when it hit $111.

The media continues to search for reasons to explain this relentless rise. We're back to the Euro reason again as the driver for rising oil prices. But has anyone noticed that with the EUR/USD forex rate at 1.5489 right now, oil's new record at $126.27 is even higher than the $119.90 reached when EUR/USD touched 1.6019 earlier? Ha! Explain that.

Like I said before, further resistance levels are around $150, $180 and $200, and just for fun, I'd like to point out now that the next 2 levels after that could be around $300 and then over $400. Ha! Take that. Ahem. Support levels are $120, $110, $100 and $90.

See also :

1. Crude oil continues 5-day record-breaking run to reach $125.98
2. Crude oil continues record-breaking streak, hits $123.93 on NYMEX
3. Crude oil hits $122.73 record on supply disruptions and global demand
4. Crude oil hits $120.36 record on Nigeria, economic data

(2008-05-11 14:43:12 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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