Category: Commodities

BY REUBEN ADAMS THE price per tonne of cobalt – essential to EV battery production – rose to $82,000 on the London Metal Exchange in mid-February. This represents a tripling of value since the start of 2016, and a 147 per cent jump since January 2017. Burgeoning EV demand is already proving a disruptive force for both the mining industry and end users of metals such as lithium and cobalt. In order to meet this increasing demand for EV batteries, cobalt supply will need to reach 180,000 tonnes (t) by 2026 – up from 48,000t in 2016, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. Platts expected a tripling in demand to more than 300,000tpa by 2030. This surge in demand for battery…

BY ELIZABETH FABRI COPPER is in favour as demand picks up in China, while electric vehicle and the renewables boom looks to build sustainable price momentum into the future. Yet the base metal, as is the case for many commodities in 2017, has also been defined by its volatility. Will the good time continue?  Copper has been a particularly interesting commodity to watch throughout the 2017 year. On the back of sudden price gains in late 2016, the base metal had a volatile start to the year, continuing its upswing in the first few months, (due to supply disruptions at three of the world’s largest mines), before plummeting to three-month lows in April. As analysts predicted, the slump was short-lived…