Allkem’s Aussie lithium will go to China despite IRA riches

Allkem chairman Peter Coleman says the subsidies offered by US President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act are not lucrative enough to divert lithium from Western Australia’s Mt Cattlin mine away from long-term customers in China.

Mr Coleman will become chairman of the world’s third-biggest lithium producer by volume in the new year if shareholders in ASX-listed Allkem and New York-listed Livent vote on December 19 to approve a $9 billion merger.