China's imports of cobalt raw materials, including ore and intermediate products, came in at 3,700 mt in metal content in May, down 57% from a month ago and down 55% from a year ago, showed the latest customs data. 

Brazil's Vale has resumed operations at its distribution centre in Malaysia, the Teluk Rubiah Maritime Terminal (TRMT), but the fast spreading of the coronavirus in Brazil may keep its iron ore shipments from rebounding significantly in the near term. 

Prices of Chinese cobalt products may slow their downside trend in the short term as uncertainties around raw materials imports remain even as top supplier South Africa has eased coronavirus lockdown measures to level 4 which allowed freight transport to resume. 

Domestic demand for raw materials increased following the return of cobalt salt producers in March, and this led to the rebound in imports. It is understood that cobalt raw materials delivery to smelters resumed at the beginning of March and more than 80% of producers restarted operations by end-March. 

Copper scrap supply in China is estimated to have shrunk nearly 200,000 mt in the first three months of 2020, as escalated virus-control measures disrupted global trade flows and as Chinese suppliers held back on sales following a slump in copper prices. A total of 225,083 mt of copper scrap was imported to China in January-to-March, down close to 140,000 mt, or more than 38% from the same period last year, according to data from China customs. SMM estimates that those copper scrap imports, with average Cu content of 78.49%, contained 176,676 mt of copper, down more than 37% from the quarter ended March 2019.

Prices of ternary materials and precursors in China will see further downside risk before May as inventories continued to pile up, driven by slowed or delayed purchases by downstream producers of power batteries amid falling orders. 

The global widespread of COVID-19 has forced many countries to enforce stringent containment measures which result in a heavy impact on global economic activity. Over the past few months, we saw serious disruption of manpower, transportation and production in China. We are now seeing these scenarios happening around the world.

The global widespread of COVID-19 has forced many countries to enforce stringent containment measures which result in a heavy impact on global economic activity. Over the past two months, we saw serious disruption of manpower, transportation and production in China. We are now seeing these scenarios happening around the world. 

Prices of battery-grade nickel sulphate, a raw material used to produce electric vehicle batteries, halted their decline that lasted for much of March, and edged higher as of March 30, as concerns about feedstock supply disruption intensified after Papua New Guinea banned vessels at ports to stop the spread of the COVID-19.

Manufacturing activities across nickel downstream sectors in China expanded in March after contracting for eleven consecutive months, as factories get back to business amid the easing of movement restrictions from COVID-19.