[SMM Weekly Review] This week, the cobalt intermediate products market continued its strong trend, with limited market liquidity, maintaining an overall "price without market" pattern.

Published: Dec 11, 2025 18:48

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The cobalt intermediate products market continued its strong trend this week, with limited available supply, maintaining an overall "price without market" pattern. On the supply side, some overseas miners were selected as pilot enterprises and approved to ship trial cargoes, but suppliers held prices firm, with mainstream offers anchored around $25.0/lb. On the demand side, the DRC signed a strategic partnership agreement over the weekend, prompting some domestic enterprises to worry about future shortages of cobalt intermediate products in China, leading to active inquiries and small transactions concluded near $24.5/lb. As of Thursday this week, aside from the pilot enterprises, export procedures for other companies remained slow. Considering shipping schedules and the impact of holidays such as Christmas and the Chinese New Year, it is expected that domestic raw materials may not arrive until after March next year. The logic of structural tightness in raw materials remains unchanged, providing continued support for intermediate product prices to rise.

This week, the cobalt intermediate products market continued its strong trend, with limited available supply in the market, maintaining an overall pattern of "price without market." On the supply side, some overseas miners became pilot enterprises, obtaining approval to ship pilot cargoes, but suppliers held prices firm, with mainstream offers anchored around $25.0/lb. On the demand side, over the weekend, the DRC signed a strategic partnership agreement, and some domestic enterprises, concerned about potential future shortages of cobalt intermediate products in China, actively inquired and concluded small transactions near $24.5/lb. As of Thursday this week, except for pilot enterprises, export procedures for other enterprises remained slow. Considering shipping schedules and the impact of holidays such as Christmas and the Chinese New Year, it was expected that domestic raw materials would not arrive at ports until after March next year. The logic of structurally tight raw materials remained unchanged, providing continued support for intermediate product prices to rise.

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

Haohan Zhang 021-51666752

Zihan Wang 021-51666914

Jie Wang 021-51595902

Yang Xu 021-51666760

Lianting Yang 021-51595835

Zhaoyu Wang 021-51666827

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