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Congo’s export quotas have lit a fire under cobalt prices and spending on the battery material is up 43% year on year despite ongoing thrifting.
A surge in supply from the Congo, responsible for 80% of the world’s cobalt output, coupled with cooling demand from the electric vehicle market, saw cobalt prices sink to historic lows at the start of 2025.
Copper production in the DRC increased by nearly 40% last year, but last week Kinshasa began implementing a quota system to replace a ban announced in February. Allowed base volumes of 87,000 tonnes per year is around half the total exports registered in 2024.
The price of cobalt sulphate entering the EV battery supply chain in China is now trading over 120% higher than at the start of the year – averaging $7,775 a tonne in September (still nowhere near the 2022 peak of $19,000 per tonne).
Tender cancelled
Cobalt…
