This paper presents concepts of value chains as strategic models for long-term development and a sustainable approach for ensuring efficiency. It highlights the fact that value chains are of particular importance in the raw materials industry, where the exploration, extraction, processing and metallurgy stages are characterized by high capital expenditure and fixed costs. Additionally, it emphasizes that offering an increasingly valuable product at each stage of production or processing makes it possible to increase earnings and achieve a higher margin. In order to give a practical dimension to the presented analyses, the paper provides an example of lithium value chains and identifies the determinants of their functioning in the current market together with their prospects. The conclusion highlights Europe’s need to source raw materials within business models based on value chains.

The global development of electromobility and the innovation of life are becoming increasingly noticeable. A direct implication of this is the increase in demand for modern products and services, their components and thus the raw materials necessary to produce them (e.g. cobalt, lithium, rare earth metals). In the European Union (EU), raw materials related to strategic sectors – renewable energy, electric mobility, defense and aerospace and digital technologies – show a very strong dependence on import throughout the entire value chain. In the case of eleven out of thirty of the so-called critical raw materials (CRM), necessary for the energy transition, the EU’s dependence on import exceeds 85%. Global supply chains, which had already been strained, were further affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the exacerbated geopolitical situations leading to even greater shortages of critical raw materials in Europe and leaving the industry facing challenges in securing access to resources. An implication of this was the European Parliament’s position on critical raw material legislation in September 2023, which called on the EU to increase its processing capacity across the value chain and enable the production of at least 40% of the annual consumption of strategic raw materials by 2030.
Growing importance in the transition to a low-emission economy is attributed to cobalt (Co), which is an essential component both in the production of electric vehicles (EV), stationary energy storage and in the developing sectors of wind energy, fuel cell systems and hydrogen storage technologies, robotics, unmanned vehicles (drones) and 3D printing as well as in digital technologies. Securing the supply of such raw material is crucial for the European Union’s economic resilience, technological advantage and strategic autonomy.
The purpose of this article is to present and analyze the concept of value chains as strategic models of long-term development and ensuring efficiency from a sustainable perspective. According to the authors, a detailed analysis of value chains may enable defining strategic directions of action and identifying the risks of their disruption or interruption. To give a practical dimension to the presented analyses, the example of the cobalt value chain is provided and the determinants of its functioning on the current market along with development prospects are indicated.

The third decade of the 21st century clearly reminded us of the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of the environment in which economies, organizations and individuals operate, bringing at least two serious economic crises. On the one hand, the COVID-19 pandemic brought an unprecedented shock of both demand and supply nature, thus materializing the risks associated with the system of international economic connections constructed over many decades. On the other hand, we are facing a global economic crisis caused by Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine. The aim of the article is to capture the impact of the above-mentioned phenomena on the economic situation in Poland from the internal and international perspective, with the global perspective also taken into account. As part of the internal perspective, the focus was on inflationary processes in the short and long term, taking into account their course and possible countermeasures. As part of the international perspective, attention was drawn to one of the most frequently discussed issues, which is making forecasts and assessments regarding the effectiveness and efficiency of sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus. The second problem within this perspective, which affects both many European economies and developed economies around the world in a tanginble way, is Europe's dependence on Russia for access to energy resources and on China for production capacity. The third issue from the international perspective are the problems related to the reconstruction of the Ukrainian economy after the war and the development prospects of this economy, paying particular attention to the role that Polish enterprises can play in these processes. Finally, within the global perspective, attention was paid to two issues, namely the so-called economy of moderation and the future of globalization. It was assumed that moderation can be considered a synonym of global rationality and a guarantee of the long-term survival of civilization, and therefore also a special case of the so-called common good. With regard to globalization, understood as an advanced form of internationalization, the focus was on the opportunities and threats for the region of Central and Eastern Europe resulting from significant changes in international value chains in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.