Annie Lee of Bloomberg reports that China’s “cobalt king,” CMOC Group Ltd., smashed through its full-year output last quarter, putting pressure on global prices. Lee writes:
The world’s No. 1 cobalt miner smashed through its full-year output target last quarter after a speedy ramp-up that’s piled pressure on global prices of the battery material.
CMOC Group Ltd. produced 84,722 tons of cobalt at its mines in Africa in the first nine months of this year, according to the firm’s earnings report late Monday. Its earlier output guidance for all of 2024 was 70,000 tons at the high end.
The faster-than-expected increase has deepened a global cobalt glut and helped send prices tumbling to an eight-year low this month. […]
CMOC is among several Chinese firms trying to lift output in central Africa’s copper belt. Preliminary exploration work has started for the western area of its Tenke Fungurume mine, and also for phase two of its Kisanfu project, it said.
In a separate statement, CMOC said it has signed a three-year supply and purchase agreement with Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. — the world’s top battery-maker and CMOC’s second-biggest shareholder — for metals including copper, cobalt, nickel and lithium.
CATL bought $546 million worth of products from CMOC in the first eight months of 2024, more than double the volume in all of 2023. CMOC said those were primarily nickel products. […]
Investors are watching metrics on social instability in China to predict when President Xi Jinping will introduce stimulus to boost the economy.
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