Basic market situation of cobalt accumulation
The entire commodity market showed a decline in the first half of 2013, with gold plummeting 27.06% in the first half and copper down 13.95%. In recent weeks, the dollar has continued to strengthen, while commodities have collapsed, precious metals have been particularly pronounced, gold prices have fallen again, and fundamental metal goods, including Len Copper, have been "weak and hard to return." In contrast, the price of electrodeposition of cobalt in 2013 has emerged from a wave of stabilization trends.
From the view of the price trend of cobalt in the Pan Asian Nonferrous Metals Trading Institute,Electrodeposition of CobaltIn 2012, the price of the cobalt market was affected by the deterioration, prices fell all the way. However, at the end of 2012, the price of electricity began to decline and stabilize. Since 2013, in the context of the collapse of commodities as a whole, it has benefited fromElectrodeposition of CobaltMarket supply and demand fundamentally improved, the price has not been affected by the decline in the external market, has been comparable to stability.
From the point of view of supply, the landing of cobalt production has a greater impact on the cobalt market. Global refined cobalt production landed slightly in 2012, digesting excess inventories in recent years and easing 2013 of years of metal cobalt inventory pressure. According to the Cobalt Industry Association (CDI) data, 2012 per cent of global production of refined cobalt landed 6.1% to 77,189 tonnes year earlier; Cobalt production landed mainly as a result of the production of the Moroccan CTT company, which landed 26.6% to 1,314 tonnes in the year.
Among the supply countries, China's production landings are particularly pronounced. Cobalt is one of the nine kinds of mineral resources in China, China's cobalt ore resources can not meet domestic demand, the demand for a large number of imported cobalt concentrate processing. China's production is mainly Jinchuan, Karek, Kai-yun and Nico run. Since 2010, cobalt prices have been declining due to the abundant supply of cobalt in China, while the profits of Chinese cobalt consumers, which are mainly consumed by imported cobalt raw materials, have become thinner and more profitable. Since 2012, the consumption of cobalt metal, represented by Karek and Kai-Real, has been reduced. Kai Lectra metal cobalt business into trade-oriented, consumer aspects of the large local spirit to the three cobalt trioxide and other products of deep processing. Kai-the conversion to the consumption of cobalt chloride and other products mainly. Nico Metal Cobalt is a by-product of nickel, cobalt is extracted from its clay nickel ore, so its yield growth is limited by nickel. The data showed that China's cobalt production in 2012 was estimated at 29,874 tonnes, landing 14.8% compared with 34,969 tons in 2011. After entering the 2013, domestic cobalt production declined further. Data on cobalt production in the first half of 2013 indicated that the domestic production of metal cobalt consumers, represented by Jinchuan, Karek, Kai and Nico China, was 2650 tonnes in the first half of the year, a 12.25% per cent decline. The four metal cobalt consumers produced a sharp drop of 560 tonnes in the first half of 2013 compared with the production of 3220 tonnes in the first half of 2010.
In addition, the news of the ban on the export of Congolese cobalt mines in the first half of 2013 continued to affect the cobalt market. Another message said that the Congolese Government or its cobalt concentrate export tariffs doubled. In 2010, the Congo imposed export duties on cobalt concentrate for the first time, amounting to more than 100 dollars/ton. On the whole, the import cost of cobalt ore in Congo will increase in the future. The Congo, as the world's leading supplier of cobalt concentrate, will affect the supply of cobalt as a ban on cobalt mines or an increase in tariffs.
In terms of cobalt demand, the demand for the aerospace and battery markets, the two main terminal applications of cobalt, is increasing. High temperature alloys and new energy batteries, as the two most promising areas of cobalt, are mainly used in the aerospace and new energy automotive industries. Since entering the 2013, domestic civil aviation has been steadily carried out, large transport aircraft, large aircraft, four-generation warplanes, aircraft carriers, general aviation and launching machine serious special and many other topics for the aerospace industry to bring a large number of catalysts. With the strong support of the policies of the countries of new energy vehicles, it has also been carried out rapidly. The robust development of these industries has also led to an increase in demand for cobalt metal.
To sum up, if the upstream supply of the accumulated cobalt market is restricted, downstreamElectrodeposition of CobaltEnd-use consumption continues to grow steadily and will be conducive to further higher prices in the later stages of the accumulation of cobalt.