China's new energy passenger car sales rose 19.5% in May from month ago: CPCA

China produced 3.86 million units of automobiles during January to February, up 89.9% on the year, and this included 317,000 units of new energy vehicles, up 395.3% year on year, according to data from National Bureau of Statistics.

Tight cobalt raw materials supply in China has gradually eased, and major traders expect refined cobalt prices to rise amid market talks that the government would collect and storage 2,000 mt of cobalt in late 2020. Prices of lithium salts were stable, with some producers planning to raise prices slightly.

Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed that 2.33 million and 2.3 million automobiles were produced and sold, respectively, in China last month.

According to statistics from the United States Geological Survey in 2015, the world's proven land cobalt resources were about 25 million mt, with reserves of 7.2 million mt. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Australia and Cuba accounted for 68% of the global cobalt reserves. Congo (Gold) is the country with the most abundant cobalt reserves. As of 2014, cobalt reserves in Congo stood at 3.4 million mt, accounting for more than 50% of the world’s total.

The outlook for the China’s cobalt-lithium new energy industry in 2020 is full of uncertainties with the hampering impact of COVID-19 on global trade. On the demand side, cobalt-lithium new energy (the key downstream application segment), the new energy vehicles (NEVs) and the 3C consumer markets are affected by the global widespread of the coronavirus pandemic, with sharp declines in overseas orders. On the supply side, we saw the suspension of production across mine smelters and port closures as the demand and supply fundamentals has changed tremendously due to COVID-19.

Demand for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries in the new energy vehicle market, which enjoy more cost advantage as compared to high-nickel ternary batteries, will likely increase with support from the latest 2020 NEV subsidy policy, under which only passenger cars costing less than 300,000 yuan/unit will receive subsidies. 

China’s excavator sales increased 11.6% year on year in March, recovering from a 50.5% tumble in February, as key construction projects resumed work after the coronavirus pandemic outbreak in the country came under control.

Only 12,000 NEVs produced in China obtained qualification certificates in February, down 77.4% from a year ago, according to SMM data. Passenger vehicles accounted for 11,000 units, or 94.7%, while 300 were buses, taking up 2.9%. The rest 300 were special vehicles, accounting for 2.5% of the total.

The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said on Monday that retail sales of sedans, multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs) and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) in China stood at 252,308 units in February, down 85.3% from a month earlier and 78.5% from a year earlier.

About 1.06 million new energy passenger vehicles were sold in China in 2019, up 5.1% from 2018