Cobalt prices soared on Monday as concerns over supplies mounted after Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) declared force majeure on deliveries because of a Democratic Republic of Congo ban on exports of the battery material.
Cobalt trading on China’s Wuxi Stainless Steel Exchange was paused after prices jumped nearly 12% to about 240 yuan per kg, the highest since October.
European prices also climbed, with standard grade cobalt warehoused in Rotterdam rising to $12.25 per lb on March 7, up from $10.80 on March 4 and $9.95 on February 24, data from pricing information agency Fastmarkets showed.
Last month Congo’s government suspended cobalt exports for four months to rein in oversupply and large surpluses, which had sent prices to nine-year lows around $10 a lb, or $22,000 a metric ton.
ERG declared force majeure – typically invoked when unforeseen events prevent a company from fulfilling its contractual obligations – on cobalt deliveries from its Metalkol operation in Congo because of the export ban, sources told Reuters last week.
Luxembourg-based ERG is the third-largest cobalt producing company in Congo, which itself is the world’s top producer of the mineral used to make the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles.
Two European cobalt traders said the ERG force majeure triggered the price surge.
“The Chinese are not (selling) metal. There is a growing realisation that Congo means business,” one of the traders said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
“They are holding on to what they have. ERG’s force majeure has made them sit up and take notice.”
ERG’s Metalkol operation is estimated by Darton Commodities to have produced about 19,200 metric tons of cobalt in hydroxide, about 9% of total production in Congo last year.
Metalkol’s cobalt production amounts to 7% of the global total at more than 280,000 tons last year, according to Darton, a specialist supplier of cobalt metal products.
Congo’s cobalt export ban will be reviewed in three months and could be modified or terminated, depending on the results.
The Congo government eventually plans to introduce cobalt export quotas that will be negotiated during the export suspension period, sources said.
Other top producers in Congo include London-listed miner Glencore and China’s CMOC Group.
(Reporting by Amy Lv and Lewis Jackson in Beijing and Pratima Desai and Eric Onstad in London; Editing by Toby Chopra and David Goodman)
