In the not-too-distant past, the grease industry had a fair amount of muscle when it came to the price of lithium. Although the volume of lithium hydroxide the grease industry consumes annually is fairly constant, its share in the market has shrunk while overall demand has ballooned. Prices have been on a rollercoaster too, making future planning a challenge.
If pricing wasn’t challenging enough, regulations coming down the pipeline are also making it difficult to justify using lithium as a thickener.
Dennis Eijdenberg from Axel Christiernsson talks to Trevor Gauntlett about electric vehicle battery makers gobbling up supplies of this key metal used extensively in grease making. Axel Christiernsson is the largest manufacturer of lubricating greases in the world, and the company invests significant resources in developing greases using this jack-of-all-trades thickener and its alternatives.
