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China is set to control 50% of Cobalt.

 

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China is set to tighten its grip on the global sup­ply of cobalt as the price of the metal used in elec­tric car bat­ter­ies hits a 32-month low off the back of a surge in pro­duc­tion.

Over the next two years, China’s share of cobalt pro­duc­tion is expec­ted to reach half of global out­put, up from 44 per cent at present, accord­ing to a report by Dar­ton Com­mod­it­ies, a UK-based cobalt trader.

China’s grow­ing role in cobalt sup­ply comes as a 12-month rally for the metal has spun into reverse, with prices drop­ping 60 per cent to $16 a pound from a peak above $40 a pound in May.

«A lot of things con­verged at the same time to push the mar­ket down the relax­a­tion of logist­ics issues, weak con­sumer elec­tronic sales and a tech­no­logy shift towards lower or no cobalt EV bat­ter­ies,» said Cas­par Rawles, chief data officer at Bench­mark Min­eral Intel­li­gence, a pri­cing agency.

The sup­ply surge was more than double the demand increase, lead­ing to the price col­lapse.

Soft sales of port­able elec­tron­ics glob­ally hit demand, Covid-19 lock­downs in China and a shift in the Chinese elec­tric vehicle mar­ket towards lower-range bat­ter­ies that do not use cobalt.

www.sba.tax

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Comments

  1. Mason13 March 2023 at 09:55

    Never a good thing when a powerful country (especially China) has such large control over such a valuable resource.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jayden M.13 March 2023 at 10:23

      Maybe we should invest in the other countries that are producing cobalt so they (perhaps) produce more?

      Delete
  2. Noah Mirren13 March 2023 at 11:06

    Whether it's China or Russia, this is not good. But let's make sure they don't go even higher than 50%. Like Jayden said, we should help the states that produce cobalt so they increase production and do it faster. Countries like: Australia, Canada, Philippines, Congo, Papua New Guinea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Christopher13 March 2023 at 13:33

      From what I read, a lot of China's cobalt is coming from Congo. So maybe offer Congo more money so they export to countries like the UK or US? Could that work? Who knows.

      Delete

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