Annie Lee

Volkswagen AG and Gotion High-Tech Co. plan to invest €3.22 billion ($3.7 billion) in battery facilities in Europe and North Africa as they push to set up an electric-vehicle supply chain outside China.

Chinese lithium futures have shed a quarter of their value this month, pummeled by concerns over flagging demand.

Copper extended gains as traders looked to a more hopeful outlook for interest rates and gauged the impact on supply of a fatal mine incident in Chile.

Lithium futures in China slumped as the agreement to limit hybrid car exports to the European Union weighed on demand prospects for the battery material.

CNGR Advanced Material Co. is in talks to acquire a major Indonesian nickel plant, a move with the potential to transform the battery materials producer into one of the biggest players in the country’s smelting industry.

Mercuria Energy Group has placed another big bet on copper production in the Democratic Republic of Congo, sealing a deal to buy metal from units of Shanghai Jayson New Energy Materials Group.

Chinese lithium futures extended a deep selloff this week on growing concerns about the demand outlook for the battery metal.

Top executives at several Chinese nickel producers plan to meet as early as Tuesday to discuss coordinated output cuts at their battery material plants in Indonesia, according to people familiar with the matter.

Battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd.’s slower-than-expected quarterly profit growth has prompted analysts to warn that the company and its peers may struggle to manage pressure from a revived domestic consumption tax and the end of other fiscal benefits.

Chinese miner CMOC Group Ltd.’s earnings for the first nine months of the year surged 68% as copper prices soared toward a record.