[SMM Weekly Review] Cobalt Intermediate Products Maintained a Strong Trend This Week

Published: Jan 8, 2026 18:00

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Cobalt intermediate products continued to strengthen this week. On the supply side, after a small amount of spot transactions were concluded at $25.0/lb earlier, offer prices attempted to move higher, but no high-priced deals were concluded. On the demand side, smelters only sporadically restocked for rigid needs due to losses. Regarding export policies, before New Year's Day, the DRC issued a policy clarifying that 2025 quotas could be extended until the end of March 2026, alleviating market concerns that 2025 quotas would be directly reclaimed. However, this also implied sluggish export progress. Based on the current export situation of miners, the earliest large-scale arrival of DRC intermediate products in ports would be after April 2026. In the short term, the logic of structural tightness in domestic raw materials remained unchanged, with solid support below prices.

Cobalt intermediate products continued to exhibit strength this week. On the supply side, after a small amount of spot transactions were concluded at $25.0/lb previously, offer prices attempted to move higher, but no high-priced deals were concluded. On the demand side, smelters incurred losses and only made sporadic restocking for rigid demand. Regarding export policies, before New Year's Day, the DRC issued a policy clarifying that 2025 quotas can be extended until the end of March 2026, alleviating market concerns that 2025 quotas would be directly reclaimed. However, this also indicated sluggish export progress. Based on the current export situation of miners, the earliest bulk arrival of DRC intermediate products in China would be after April 2026. In the short term, the logic of structurally tight domestic raw material supply remains unchanged, providing solid support for 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

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