Industry, said the United States cobalt prices have been falling, and demand, consumers are not willing to procurement markets. MW quotations indicate that the United States on October 23 transaction price of high-grade cobalt fell to 31-33.5 dollars / pounds, and before the week is 33-35 dollars / pounds, and only a small amount of the transaction.
Traders also said the market either alone or consult the actual trading volume is very small, they think only of the current economic environment, the consumer’s view of the warming, in order to stop the price decline.
Some traders said that orders for its long-term users are a quarter of next year to defer its order to help cash flow, but not cancel orders. Consumers also said that in addition to the current need for the procurement of toshiba pa3107u-1brs battery production, he does not know will not be additional procurement needs.
However, many people within the industry that the current economic environment will lead to production cuts, and will supply shortage in the second half of next year. Last year, the cobalt market supply and demand are basically balanced, but if the Katanga mining projects put into production as scheduled, its cobalt production in 2011 will increase to 30,000 tons. This will be the world’ssony pcga-bp2nx battery market, a major change. There are claims that even if the manufacturer is a lot of production on the market in the short term the impact is very small, mainly financial crisis in consumer confidence and the impact of cobalt.