Benchmark prices for cobalt metal continued to recover through April 2019, although lackluster gains for cobalt sulfate were a sign of continued oversupply at points along the supply chain.
Price movesThe benchmark standard-grade cobalt prices showed a month-on-month increase in April for the first time since October, with consumers and traders starting to restock, and producers facing less urgency to offload material."We felt that cobalt metal prices were getting over-stretched on the downside in February and March, so it is not surprising that prices rebounded once someone stepped into the market," Will Adams, Fastmarkets' head of battery raw materials, said."We think the timing of the rebound was linked to the start of the financial new year in Japan, when budgets were reset," he added.Buyers came into the spot market for the first time in almost a year, with large volumes changing hands to quickly soak up the immediate metal overhang. Some of that material...