The Lithium War, Free Competition and Corporate Governments



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The so-called "white gold" national, lithium, has ceased to be a fad and has become an essential badet for an increasingly mobile and electric world. Only in the case of our country – the world's second largest lithium producer after Australia – lithium production is expected to more than double by 2022.

In this context, the last few months were agitated with respect to lithium. Once, on the one hand, voices were voiced from the political world proposing the "innovative" idea of ​​nationalizing this industry and, on the other hand, an intense public-legal debate on the subject. is being developed for the Chinese Tianqi mining company. to acquire the 24% package of Soquimich (SQM) to be eliminated by the Canadian company Nutrien no later than next April.
Regarding the latter, a strong communication offensive was developed by some agents, which adds to the ignorance (or other intention?) Of many actors, resulting in a series of Errors or myths badociated with the company's intention. Even some free competition experts, such as the lawyer Tomás Menchaca, former President of the Tribunal for the Defense of Free Competition (TDLC), have radically changed his original position.

the sum of SQM, Tianqi and Abemarle could generate a lithium cartel, with about 70% of the world market, considering the future entry into SQM Tianqi and a distribution contract between the latter and Abemarle , which refers to lithium concentrate at its most basic level, which is not used to produce batteries, and this does not detract from the fact that the two are competing significantly globally, so the actions of three different companies can not be added so weakly.

In addition, the National Economic Prosecutor's Office (FNE) conducted a five-month investigation, concluding that there were risks, to which the measures proposed by Tian qi which was then unanimously approved by the TDLC, which is quite logical for our country, where the only thing that will change is the participation of a minority shareholder in the SQM.

Constitucional (TC) declared inadmissible the requirement of inapplicability for unconstitutionality presented by the companies related to the majority shareholder of SQM, Julio Ponce Lerou, who sought to block the entry of Tianqi in the Chilean mining company.

the new rejection by TDLC of the appeals lodged before that body by the SQM and the National Corporation of Consumers and Users of Chile (Conadecus) is added.

It should also be remembered that Tianqi is a private, open-stock company. on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, so it should not be strictly subject to regulation in the different countries where it is present, but to the standards of corporate governance typical of a public company.

In short, the different stages of the process that regulated Tianqi's future entry into SQM only demonstrated that the institutions of free competition in Chile function perfectly and who is at the origin of the campaign mentioned above does not necessarily concern a strong concern for this area, but for other reasons.

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