Intense buying from Chinese speculators and foreign traders over the past two weeks is unlikely to cause China's cobalt metal market to slip into a significant supply deficit in the near term, market participants told Fastmarkets.
Steady production of cobalt metal in China amid weak downstream consumption during the slower summer months and extensive importing have limited the effect that recent stockpiling by both domestic and foreign participants has had on Chinese supply of the blue metal.When speculative buying emerged in China's cobalt metal market two weeks ago, some market participants had expressed doubt that the buying would result in a meaningful upswing in prices, citing an oversupply of the metal in the country.These doubts seem well founded given the price of cobalt metal in China has languished at the same level for the past two weeks.Fastmarkets assessed the price of cobalt 99.8% Co min, ex-works...