Overseas cobalt prices were relatively stable during the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, and there were few cobalt salt transactions heard in the market. And the prices remained unchanged from the pre-CNY holiday level.

The output of cobalt sulphate in January will be about 5,900 mt in metal content, and the output of cobalt chloride will stand at 4,400 mt in metal content.

As of January 26, China battery-grade lithium carbonate offers continued to rise, according to SMM prices.

The average monthly price of battery-grade lithium carbonate was 236,478 yuan/mt in December 2021, up 20% on the month. The prices are likely to rise further as the downstream restocking extends.

Cobalt and lithium were undoubtedly the topic of the year which featured recovery and growth. As the shortage of upstream minerals drove up the prices of cobalt and lithium salt, many midstream and downstream enterprises have embarked on the road of competing with upstream miners for cobalt and lithium resources in order to control their costs.

The market sentiment of lithium ore increased further. SQM, the world's second-largest lithium miner, predicted that the average price of lithium will rise by nearly 50% compared to Q3 in Q4.

The new production capacity of lithium resources will be put into operation intensively after 2022-2023, and the production may be lower than expected. It is expected that there will still be a supply shortage of 24,000 mt LCE in 2022.

China’s copper cathode output stood at 789,400 mt in October, down 1.7% month on month and 3.9% year on year.

The output of copper cathode in September stood at 802,900 mt in September, down 2% on the month and up 0.4% on the year.

Shanghai base metals all trended higher on Monday morning boosted by the unexpectedly low US employment data. Meanwhile, their counterparts on LME trended mixed.