Global cobalt short-term outlook November 2023

Cobalt prices failed to sustain growth in November as the market was weighed down by rising supply and suppressed demand. The sentiment is turning sour due to weak demand from all major end-use sectors. On the supply side, the truckers’ strike in the DRC and the earthquake in Papua New Guinea have had limited impacts on cobalt shipments so far, while MHP exports from Indonesia increased in October due to Huafei’s ramp up. Weak demand has kept capacity utilisation low at chemical plants and in turn forced refiners in China to switch to metal production, resulting in a surging supply of cut cobalt cathode.