- Chile’s government has asked antitrust regulators to block the sale of a stake in lithium company Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM +2.9%) to a Chinese company on the grounds the sale would give China an unfair advantage in the global race to secure resources to develop electric vehicles, Reuters reports.
- Eduardo Bitran, the head of Chilean development agency Corfo, reportedly says China's Tianqi Lithium had presented an offer for Nutrien’s (NTR +4.3%) 32% stake in SQM and that Tianqi and SQM were “extremely close competitors... and were one to acquire an interest in the other - even minority - it would have serious anti-competitive impacts on the market."
- Four other companies, all Chinese except for global miner Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) (RIO +0.1%), also were vying for NTR's stake, according to Bitran.
- SQM and Tianqi control a combined 70% of the global lithium market, according to Corfo's findings.
- Now read: Nutrien 's Results Were Not Satisfactory
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