Fortune Minerals : COBALT NEWS

S&P Global Market Intelligence - September 28, 2021

A copper and cobalt mine located in Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of Congo, is pictured above. Plans to expand cobalt mines in DRC have ...

after cobaltprices crashed in response to increasing production from China and oversupply. The company produced 27,400 tonnes of cobalt in

A market deficit for cobalt is narrowing as the world's leading producers of the prized metal expand production to meet the spike in demand for batteries used in electric vehicles…Amid the surge in EV sales this year, hunger for cobalt drove major producers to announce plans to increase output at multiple mine sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo and balance the market…The market is expected to move into surplus in 2022 after suffering an estimated shortage of 1,800 tonnes of refined cobalt this year, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence's latest forecast published Sept. 22…"The situation is not as dire as it was," Caspar Rawles, head of price assessments at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, said in an interview. "The supply chains have responded, and I think the cobalt picture does look a lot better."…Global refined cobalt production is expected to rise 38.5% between 2021 and 2025, reaching 223,000 tonnes, according to Market Intelligence, thanks to the expansion and restart of multiple production sites. Leading cobalt producers Glencore PLC and China Molybdenum Co. Ltd. are expected to boost production at mines in the DRC in the coming years. About 68.6% of the world's 139,480 tonnes of cobalt supply last year came from the DRC, followed by 4.2% from Australia and 3.3% from the Philippines…"We are starting the ramp-up, starting to come back into production [at Mutanda]," Gary Nagle, Glencore CEO and director, said on the Aug. 5 call. "We will take our time with the ramp-up to ensure we can match the supply that comes from Mutanda with the demand growth that we see in the market."…Glencore stopped operations at the Mutanda mine and placed the facilities on care and maintenance at the end of 2019 after cobalt prices crashed in response to increasing production from China and oversupply. Glencore produced 27,400 tonnes of cobalt in 2020, according to the company, making it one of the world's leading producers of cobalt…China Molybdenum, the second-largest cobalt producer in terms of volume, plans to pump $2.51 billion into its 80%-owned Tenke Fungurume copper-cobalt mine in the DRC by 2023, increasing cobalt production capacity by 17,000 tonnes. In 2020, the mine's cobalt output totaled 15,436 tonnes, according to Market Intelligence data. Gécamines SA, a state-run company, holds the remaining 20% of the Tenke Fungurume mine…In recent months, a semiconductor chip shortage dampened the need for cobalt, which is used in electronics and certain batteries. The continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and hiccups at a port in South Africa have continued to upend several parts of the supply chain as well, according to Market Intelligence analyst Alice Yu…Still, analysts foresee another supply deficit cropping up in 2025, and cobalt's use in next-generation EV batteries is far from certain. Some battery manufacturers have sought ways to wean themselves off the metal due to chronic supply chain constraints, high prices and alleged human rights abuses associated with its mining and processing…Yet cobalt provides stability and safety in batteries. Even as some manufacturers eschew the metal in favor of other materials, cobalt will still likely play a sizeable role in battery supply chains for the foreseeable future, industry experts said…"Despite the trend of cobalt thrifting in vehicle batteries, we forecast total cobalt demand to rise 74% between 2020 and 2025 to 229,000 tonnes from rising [plug-in] EV sales, offsetting the impact of lower cobalt intensity," Yu said…Cobalt's use in EV batteries globally is forecast to surge to 97,203 tonnes by 2025, about 293.8% higher than in 2020.