The Commodity Run to Watch in 2019 - Seite 3

This isn't a pure vanadium play by any stretch, but it's a safe bet on a world class miner whose margins are looking more than healthy and whose iron ore prospects are driving it forward.

Much like BHP, Rio Tinto has been busy offloading non-core assets of its own this year and is likely to return these funds to shareholders. This is a great play with a positive earnings outlook on the back of solid global growth for investors looking for broad exposure to the sector, with a potential vanadium bump in the near future.

#4 Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX)

If it's lithium you're still stuck on, this is by far the best performer out there. But again, this isn't just about lithium, and FCX depends quite a lot on its pesticide sales, seeing 92 percent of revenue in the first half of this year from its agricultural solutions business. And in March last year, FCX bought up a significant portion of DuPont's crop protection business in a deal that closed last November. That deal turned Freemont into one of the largest agro-tech companies in the world.

Trading as a $20.23-billion market cap company, FCX was also one of the biggest producers of cobalt in the world until it sold its stake in Congolese Tenke Fungurume to China Molybendum for $2.65 billion, though it still has its hands in the cobalt trade through a subsidiary called Freeport Cobalt.

But in October, things are about to getting more interesting because FCX is planning to spin-off it's lithium segment. FMC Corp's lithium segment will become Livent Corp. next month. Management expects the lithium segment to generate full-year 2018 revenue in the neighborhood of $445 million and EBITDA of around $200 million. 

#5 Albemarle Corp. (NYSE:ALB)

This is the largest lithium producer in the world, so-again-it's a risk with vanadium emerging as the superior element for the battery race and the much bigger energy storage question. But Albemarle is flexible. And this could tie in to FMC Corp's lithium plans. In the first week of September, Albemarle said it might consider buying FMC's lithium spin-off (Livent) if the Livent IPO flounders. It's also significant because this IPO would be the first major U.S. lithium producer to go public.