[SMM Weekly Review] The spot price of cobalt intermediate products continued to rise this week

This week, the spot price of cobalt intermediate products continued to maintain an upward trend, with some enterprises reporting that mainstream brands had transactions near the range of $12.8-13.0/lb. On the supply side, mainstream miners continued to suspend public quotations, with some traders reducing their inventory and controlling the pace of shipments, thus suspending quotations. On the demand side, the price increase of cobalt smelting products has been slower than that of cobalt intermediate products recently, leading to further cost inversion for smelters. Some smelters with relatively low inventory reported that if they could not purchase low-priced cobalt intermediate products at present, they would choose to purchase other cobalt raw materials as substitutes or even opt for production cuts or even shutdowns. Overall, influenced by the extension policy in the DRC, China's cobalt intermediate products will still face a shortage of raw materials in the future, and there is upward momentum in prices. However, during this process, attention needs to be paid to the inhibition of downstream demand caused by the rise in raw material prices.

SMM New Energy Research Team

Wang Cong 021-51666838

Ma Rui 021-51595780

Feng Disheng 021-51666714

Lv Yanlin 021-20707875

Xiao Wenhao 021-51666872

Zhou Zhicheng 021-51666711