Cobalt Chloride: Supply Tightness Intensifies, Prices Break Through and Rise

Domestic cobalt chloride market activity significantly improved this week, with the supply-demand pattern further tightening. Supply side, mainstream quotations continued to rise, the tight raw material situation persisted, and trader and recycling enterprise inventories were already at low levels. The expected market transaction price increased from last week's 105,000 yuan/mt to around 108,000 yuan/mt. Smelting side, inventories of small and medium-sized smelters were expected to be depleted between December and next January, general quotations had risen above 110,000 yuan/mt, and the willingness to sell generally decreased. Demand side, some enterprises, to secure production arrangements for next year's Q1, recently continued purchasing and stockpiling, with purchase willingness rising to 108,000–110,000 yuan/mt. Overall, cobalt chloride prices still had upward momentum in the short term and were expected to stabilize above 110,000 yuan/mt recently.

SMM New Energy Research Team

Wang Cong 021-51666838

Ma Rui 021-51595780

Feng Disheng 021-51666714

Lu Yanlin 021-20707875

Zhou Zhicheng 021-51666711