Cobalt market summary Aug 14-18
2006-08-21 09:02:55 【Print】
BEIJING (Asian Metal) 21 Aug 06 – Cobalt price kept going up dramatically last week both in China and in the international market.
On Monday, Norislk raised cobalt ingot 99.3% price from USD14.15/lb to USD14.40/lb.
On the same day, BHP raised its price from 16.15/lb to USD17.40/lb after selling 10t to North America and Europe at around USD16.75/lb and USD17.00/lb respectively.
Jinchuan also raised its cobalt ex works price from RMB292/kg (USD13.61/lb) to RMB305/kg (USD14.22/lb) even though the company could hardly put any material in the spot market.
On Tuesday, BHP sold another 5t for USD17.40/lb to North America and then raised the price to USD17.70/lb.
Sales became good to BHP since then and on Wednesday, the company sold 5t for USD17.70/lb, and raised the price from USD17.70/lb to USD18.20/lb. Norislk also raised its cobalt price considerably from USD14.40/lb to USD14.85/lb.
On Friday, Jinchuan raised its cobalt price from RMB305/kg (USD14.22/lb) to RMB325/kg (USD15.15/lb) while BHP raised the price from USD18.20/lb to USD20.00/lb after selling 10t to Europe and North America.
Besides Falconbridge,OMG, Sheritt and Chambishi also offered less materials in the spot market, making the international spot market extremely tight. Thus the market price climbed to USD16.2-17.5/lb for cobalt cathode 99.8% and USD14.5-15.0/lb for 99.3% ingot.
Boosted by the promising world cobalt market, Chinese Falconbridge suppliers raised the price from RMB345/kg (USD16.08/lb) to RMB365/kg (USD17.01/lb) in a week.
As suppliers could hardly get materials from Jinchuan while cobalt price was increasing dramatically day on day, they offered RMB350-360/kg (USD16.31-16.78/lb) for Jinchuan cobalt. But even at this high price, they preferred not to sell, expecting higher prices. Zambian cobalt 99.6% also saw higher offers of RMB360-370/kg (USD16.78-17.24/lb) last week, pushing market participants’ confidence higher.
Meanwhile, the price of cobalt concentrate also increased from USD11.3-11.5/lb to USD11.6-11.8/lb for short supply. Some even offered RMB230/kg for cobalt metal ton.
In line with the booming cobalt cathode and cobalt concentrate market, the price of cobalt chloride also picked up from RMB65-66/kg to RMB67-68/kg despite more inquiries and few conclusions.
As raw materials were becoming more expensive, cobalt trioxide producers were forced to raise their offers from RMB225-230/kg to RMB230-235/kg. Nevertheless, demand was not propelled but remained unchanged as it took time for the market to digest the price increase.
Cobalt oxide also saw prices increasing from RMB210/kg to around RMB220/kg last week with most deals concluded at around RMB215/kg.
Meanwhile, cobalt monoxide producers also tried to increase prices from RMB270-275/kg to RMB280-290/kg while consumers from Ni-H sector were bothered by the hiking nickel prices.
Cobalt powder saw higher offers at around RMB320/kg last week, up from RMB300/kg a week ago on the back of the increased production cost caused by the hiking raw material prices.
