FASTMARKETS -- Metal Bulletin heard different voices at Antaike’s Battery Materials Conference held in Shangyu, China on July 18-20. 

China’s cobalt market looks healthy, despite recent declines. Cobalt prices look like they have bottomed out in China, Aaron Cao, president of Shanghai Greatpower told delegates. 

Recent negativity stemmed from weaker seasonal demand, a squeeze on credit in China, and inventory sales during a falling market. Prices for Chinese domestic cobalt metal, min 99.8%, fell to lows of 520,000-540,000 yuan ($76,826-79,781) per tonne in early July, from highs of 675,000-690,000 yuan per tonne in early April, but have stabilized over the past week while international cobalt prices continued to cool. 

NIKKEI ASIAN REVIEW -- The equation could not be simpler. Electric cars are widely considered the future of the auto industry. Each electric car battery requires about 10 kg of cobalt. Control the cobalt supply, win the future. 

China, clearly, has done the math.
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Most of the cobalt produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- the world's top source of the metal by far -- is purchased by Chinese companies like Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt and refined back in China. The strategy appears to be to control the supply chain so that electric car production is virtually impossible without Chinese involvement.

FORBES -- On July 6, additional Chinese tariffs came on nearly $35 billion of U.S. products in retaliation to U.S. tariffs on an equal value of Chinese exports. Indeed, a heightening trade war with China is once again exposing a very dangerous energy and national security vulnerability for the U.S.: the need to import high levels of critically important minerals. In fact, of the 90 mineral commodities that our U.S. Geological Survey tracks, we are more than 50% import reliant for 50 of them and 100% import reliant for 20, including very important rare earth elements. This 250% increase in 60 years shows how badly our mineral supply chain needs rebuilt.

This import dependency is a massive hole in the U.S. energy security apparatus that needs plugged immediately. From the lithium-ion batteries used for electric vehicles, computers, and cell phones to building solar panels and wind turbines, such resources are essential to our current and future energy systems. We've been spending $7-8 billion a year on imported minerals, and future expenses can only go higher as their strategic value widens. "U.S. energy security begins at home."

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST -- The price of lithium, a soft silvery white metal usually mined from brines, has soared by more than 300 per cent in the past two years. The price of cobalt, mostly mined as a by-product of nickel and copper, surged 129 per cent last year while nickel surged 4.6 per cent to a two-year high in London.

At the centre of the boom is China’s support for developing electric vehicles (EV) to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

METAL BULLETIN -- Both Chinese cobalt metal and salts prices trended lower at the midweek pricing session due to weak demand and an urgency among sellers to square books at the half-year end.

Metal Bulletin’s Chinese cobalt metal price narrowed to 540,000-550,000 yuan per tonne (approximately $31.99-32.59 per lb, China VAT-free) on Wednesday June 27 from 540,000-560,000 yuan per tonne on June 22. ​

MINING WEEKLY -- More than 30 Chinese companies active in the Democratic Republic of Congo formed a business association backed by both countries’ governments, further cementing China’s ascendancy in copper and cobalt production in the central African nation.

The 35-member Union of Mining Companies with Chinese Capital will facilitate “communication and exchange between the Chinese mining companies and the government of our country,” Cheng Yonghong, the group’s president, said at an inauguration event in Lubumbashi in southeast Congo on June 16. The group, known by the French acronym USMCC, was founded at the initiative of China’s embassy and on the advice of Congo’s mines minister, he said.

BLOOMBERG -- A slump in cobalt prices and the shares of Chinese refiners may provide an ideal bargain-hunting opportunity for investors seeking a piece of the action as Asia’s top economy leads a global boom in electric vehicles.
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Cobalt sulfate, a chemical used in batteries, has dropped more than 20 percent since April, while the form of the metal used in high-tech alloys is down 15 percent after prices hit the highest level since 2008. Supply concerns are easing for now, but the longer-term picture remains positive as China scrambles to roll out electric vehicles to reduce roadside pollution.

COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS -- The market for cobalt has exploded in recent years, with demand driven by the surge in production of batteries for electric cars. Its strategic importance will only grow, experts say, as carmakers aggressively scale up production of electric vehicles in the decades ahead.

The boom has focused attention on cobalt’s complex and controversial supply chain. In particular, the dominant roles played by both China and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have raised major concerns about ensuring supply of this increasingly valuable commodity.​