(Reuters) -Australia’s Alliance Nickel said on Friday carmaker Stellantis will terminate their supply deal for battery-grade nickel and cobalt from the NiWest project, effective December 3, citing missed milestone deadlines.
The company attributed the delays to challenging conditions in the global nickel market, which have limited opportunities to secure financing. Alliance is the latest Australian producer forced to renegotiate supply agreements with automakers.
The miner said nickel prices have remained under sustained pressure over the past two years, making it difficult to fund new projects.
Alliance said weaker prices have hit its financial position, prompting it to defer other commitments while it works to secure adequate financing for the NiWest project in Western Australia.
Stellantis, the maker of Jeep, Fiat and Chrysler, had expressed willingness to renegotiate the offtake terms, according to Alliance.
“We recognise that this presents a good opportunity for both sides to negotiate on a new agreement that is more reflective of the revised project development timeline and forward strategy,” Alliance Managing Director Paul Kopejtka said.
Shares of Alliance fell as much as 6.4% in early trade.
In 2023, the two companies signed an agreement to supply 170,000 tons of nickel sulphate and 12,000 tons of cobalt sulphate over an initial five-year period, representing about 40% of NiWest’s forecast annual output.
At the time, the deal underscored Australia’s growing role as a key supplier of battery materials critical to electric vehicle production.
The 2023 agreement had also led to the Italian-French group acquiring an 11.5% stake in the Australian firm.
This was the second supply deal with an Australian company that Stellantis, formed in 2021 through the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot maker PSA, had scrapped.
Earlier, this week, Stellantis dropped out of a supply agreement with Australian battery materials supplier, Novonix, citing an inability to agree on product specifications.
(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee and Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
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