Some mobile phone producers have started to develop devices that support the fifth generation (5G) network, but long-term support for cobalt demand from 5G phones will be limited, Fastmarkets heard on the sidelines of a cobalt conference in Hong Kong this week.
There was likely to be an instant boost for cobalt demand, however, when many consumers replaced their 4G mobile phones with those enabled for 5G, market sources told Fastmarkets at the Cobalt Institute Conference in Hong Kong, May 15-16.But this support for cobalt demand was likely to be short-lived because the total consumption of cobalt for mobile phone manufacture was not expected to rise significantly, they added."When consumers want to upgrade, you might see a large degree of demand for the new phones, resulting in extensive orders for lithium cobalt oxide [LCO] batteries and the battery raw material...