[SMM Weekly Review] Spot Refined Cobalt Prices Continued to Rise This Week

This week, the spot price of refined cobalt continued its upward trend. During the National Day holiday, overseas refined cobalt prices kept rising, driving domestic prices to follow suit on the first day after the holiday resumption. Supply side, smelters, constrained by tight raw material inventory and increased bullish expectations for the future market, generally suspended quotations temporarily; traders mostly followed the domestic futures trend, raising spot quotations. Demand side, affected by the rapid price increase of refined cobalt, traditional downstream enterprises such as alloys and magnetic materials faced cost pressure, with price transmission being sluggish, mostly maintaining a just-in-time procurement strategy, and actual market transactions remained sluggish. In the short term, the market generally focuses on the final implementation of the DRC export quota policy on October 15. Before this policy is clarified, buyers and sellers are expected to maintain a cautious wait-and-see attitude, overall transaction activity will be limited, and prices may continue their relatively strong trend.

SMM New Energy Research Team

Cong Wang 021-51666838

Rui Ma 021-51595780

Disheng Feng 021-51666714

Yanlin Lü 021-20707875

Wenhao Xiao 021-51666872

Zhicheng Zhou 021-51666711