Trader-miner Glencore expects healthy future demand for cobalt and a bottoming out of prices after a difficult second half of 2018, its senior executives said on Wednesday February 20 during its full-year results announcement.
Glencore's adjusted earnings before interest and tax (Ebit) came to $2.5 billion in its marketing business for the full-year 2018, down 17% year on year. The company attributed the drop to challenging dynamics in the cobalt and alumina markets. The group was hit by contract non-performance among cobalt customers in late 2018 and has been having to stockpile cobalt from its Katanga subsidiary in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) due to excess uranium levels. "Cobalt was a double punch for...