BREAKING: Solar energy accounted for 12.8% of US electricity production in May, surpassing coal at 12.2%, marking the first time this has occurred in a full calendar month. Solar generation surged 17.0% YoY in May while coal output declined -11.0%, continuing a historic shift in the US power mix. This shift has been supported by years of rapid solar deployment, while rising electricity demand from AI data centers further boosting investment in new generation capacity. As a result, solar and battery storage together accounted for 91% of all new US power capacity installed in Q1 2026. Meanwhile, natural gas remains the dominant source at 37% of the US electricity mix. The AI revolution is accelerating America's energy transition.

China Petrol Car Sales Trend: 2017: 23.6m (historical peak) 2018: 21.4 2019: 19.6 2020: 17.8 2021: 17.1 2022: 14.8 2023: 13.9 2024: 11.4 2025: 10.9 2026(e): 7.2 >16.4m annual loss since 2017 is larger than the annual passenger car markets of the US and Japan combined

Silver is about to do something special!

U.S. M2 Money Supply hits new all-time high of $22.8 Trillion 📈🤑

Mysteel daily reporting on China #lithium market 20260612👇 Please click the link below if you wish to know more information about China's lithium-ion #battery industry mysteel.net/h/new-energy/

I've been getting questions on the #lithium price pullback and market balance.. so here are some broad thoughts and analyses: Demand: - Iran war is massively stimulating switch to EVs. EV sales 90-160% in many countries YoY Apr 2026. Last year's headlines were doom & gloom about "slowing EV sales". In reality, BEVs PHEVs were 20.7m units, pretty healthy. This year I forecast a re-acceleration in EV sales - lithium use 210kt LCE YoY. - BESS growth is pretty insane. Last year installations/shipments were ~320/500GWh. This year it's looking like ~500/850GWh. FYI 850GWh --> ~600kt LCE used in those cells so this segment alone might consume 30% of lithium supply this year. - E-Trucks: Grew 180% (!!) YoY in China last year. More broadly, the Class 4-8 segment represented 5% (86kt LCE) of lithium supply last year and it's just starting to go up the steep part of the S-curve globally. If your analyst doesn't have this in his model, he's missing 150kt LCE use this year. - Overall, global lithium demand grows from 1.5Mt last year to 2.0Mt in 2026, a 500kt LCE jump. Supply: - Mine restarts: To this year's supply, Bald Hill adds 8kt LCE. Ngungajoo adds 10kt. Finniss adds 10kt. Small-ish vs the demand growth. - Mt Holland "doubling capacity": Won't happen until 2028. - CATL Jianxiawo mine: Even if it turned on today, it'd produce only 30kt this year. Less considering ramp-up. And there's a cow or two to relocate if recent videos are to be believed. 😉 - Supply growth has been severely constrained in the last two years as companies could not get financing, or built slower. This WILL be felt in 2026 and 2027. Market Balance: - I see a deficit this year growing to 2030. Much of this is based off BESS growth to 1.76TWh ( 17% from my prev forecast) as countries realize they want to reduce natural gas imports dependence. I'm also pounding the table on E-Trucks here. Watch this space. - I respect Benchmark's gutsy call for a 2027 surplus. I disagree though. They have been pretty conservative on demand forecasts and I think this year will surprise many analysts.

Mysteel daily reporting on China #lithium market 20260611👇 Please click the link below if you wish to know more information about China's lithium-ion #battery industry mysteel.net/h/new-energy/

Mysteel daily reporting on China #lithium market 20260610👇 Please click the link below if you wish to know more information about China's lithium-ion #battery industry mysteel.net/h/new-energy/

Mysteel daily reporting on China #lithium market 20260609👇 Please click the link below if you wish to know more information about China's lithium-ion #battery industry mysteel.net/h/new-energy

Oh my …

Spodumene CIF China(FM)Futures 0.00% to $2466, whilst increased BESS & EV demand places further pressure on LT supply Zimbabwe ban on export of all lithium materials, global supply deficit looming as high oil prices driving #EV sales $PLS.ax $OR3.ax #Lithium a #Newbullisborn

A 26-year-old from Sichuan just wowed America’s Got Talent with eight Unitree robots. Wu Yufei danced alongside the robots, stunned the judges and audience, and earned a unanimous pass to the next round.

LibertyStream Delivers First Tonne of Lithium Carbonate to U.S. Industrial Customer $LIB.v $VLTLF businesswire.com/news/home/2…

Oil demand destruction is accelerating as high prices force consumers to drive less, fly less, and switch to EVs. JPMorgan estimates China’s oil demand has already fallen by 9%, or 1.5 million bpd. #OilMarkets #EVs #EnergyTransition #OOTT oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Pric…

Gold has fallen about 20% since January. Central banks turned net sellers in March for the first time this cycle. Turkey sold 79 tonnes. Russia made its heaviest gold sale in 25 years. Every headline called it the end of the de-dollarization trade. They read it exactly backwards. Gold hit an all-time high of $5,596 an ounce on January 29. By late March it had dropped about 20%, and it trades near $4,500 today. Silver fell harder, from $116 to the low 70s. The World Gold Council reported central banks sold a net 30 tonnes in March, the first net-selling month of the cycle after three years of record buying. But read the seller, not the sale. Turkey unloaded 79 tonnes in the first quarter, swapping gold for dollars to defend a lira hitting record lows. Russia made its heaviest monthly gold sale in 25 years, raising yuan to cover a widening war deficit. Azerbaijan’s oil fund sold 22 tonnes, its first sale since it began buying in 2012. Every major seller is a country in a currency crisis. This is the part the headlines missed. A nation in distress does not sell its Treasuries to survive. It sells its gold. When the lira collapses and the ruble buckles, the asset they reach for is the one that converts to any currency instantly and answers to no one. They are not abandoning gold. They are proving what it is for. The metal did not leave the official sector. It changed hands. Poland, now holding more gold than the European Central Bank, kept buying toward a 700-tonne target. China and Uzbekistan kept accumulating. The gold moved from the desperate to the strategic. The distressed sold. The patient bought. The regime shift has a birthday. In 2022 the United States and its allies froze roughly $300 billion of Russian central bank reserves overnight. Every reserve manager learned the same lesson in a single morning. Dollar assets held abroad can be switched off by the country that issues them. Gold in your own vault cannot. The buying that followed was never a trade. It was insurance against the dollar’s own weaponization, and insurance does not get cancelled because the premium dipped for a quarter. And the structural line held. Even with March’s selling, central banks bought a net 244 tonnes across the first quarter. They still hold more gold than US Treasuries, the first time since 1996. The dollar’s share of allocated reserves remains below 60% and falling. A 20% price move did not reverse a regime shift that took a decade to build. The people who hold the reserves have not changed course. JP Morgan still forecasts 750 to 800 tonnes of central bank buying this year. The World Gold Council expects no trend break. And the deepest tell sits inside the selling itself. Russia is now issuing its government bonds in Chinese yuan, the day after Putin returned from Beijing. The dollar is losing the reserve and the settlement at the same time. Gold fell 20%. Central banks sold. The headlines called the top. The dollar still lost its reserve crown. The price corrected. The regime did not. When the currency breaks, nobody reaches for Treasuries. open.substack.com/pub/shanak…