[SMM Weekly Review] Cobalt Intermediate Products: Spot Cargoes Firm at $25/lb, Quotas May Extend Beyond the Year, Price Support Remains Strong

Cobalt intermediate products remained strong this week, with scarce spot cargoes and the "price without market" situation unchanged. Supply side, after a small amount of spot transactions at $25.0/lb, offer prices continued to attempt to move higher, while Q2 2026 futures offers held at $27/lb. Demand side, smelters faced losses and only made sporadic restocking for rigid demand. Regarding export progress, pilot enterprises had not completed the first shipment, with the earliest small-batch pilot exports expected to be completed in early January 2026. Concentrated shipments were likely to occur after mid-to-late January. Given a three-month transportation cycle, bulk arrivals of DRC supplies were expected around March-April next year. The logic of structural tightness in domestic raw materials remained unchanged, with solid support below prices.

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