Price Trend
Cobalt prices continued to fall this week, according to data from business associations. As of March 8, the cobalt market quoted 290833.34 yuan/ton, down 3333.32 yuan/ton, or 1.13 percent, from 294166.66 yuan/ton at the beginning of this week. The cobalt price continued its downturn and the cobalt price fell.
| barium chloride 98% |
II. Market Analysis
Trend analysis
On March 8, Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Association, released the national passenger vehicle market analysis data in February 2019: In February, the retail sales of passenger vehicles reached 11.7 million units, down 19.0% and 45.9% year-on-year. As a result, the cumulative retail sales of 33.33 million units in January-February this year decreased by 9.8% year-on-year. Among them, in 2019, the new energy vehicles continue to maintain the strong trend of opening the door red. In February, sales of new energy vehicles increased by 74.4% compared with the same period last year, while in January-February, new energy vehicles were wholesaled by 143,000 units, with a cumulative increase of 80,000 units and a cumulative increase of 133.8%. In February, Class A electric vehicles accounted for 53.0% of pure electric vehicles, achieving higher quality growth. Although the new energy automobile policy “weaning” has a negative impact on the growth of new energy automobiles, the current new energy automobiles are still in the rising range, and the overall demand for cobalt for new energy automobiles is still in the rising space.
| barium chloride 99% |
International Cobalt Price
On March 8, MB low-grade cobalt quoted $14.7-15.5 per pound, with a price drop of $0.15 per pound; high-grade cobalt quoted $14.6-15.75 per pound, with a price drop of $0.25 per pound; international cobalt price fell, which was bearish on domestic cobalt market, while the decline of international cobalt price slowed down and the pressure of falling cobalt price decreased.
3. Prospects for the Future Market
To sum up, Bai Jiaxin, a data analyst with business associations, believes that cobalt prices continue to decline this week, but the rate of decline in cobalt prices has slowed down, and the future cobalt prices are mainly stable. The long-term bottom of cobalt price is about 200,000 yuan/ton. Now the market cobalt price has reached 290,000 yuan/ton. It is difficult for cobalt price to fall below the historical low, and there is limited space for reduction of cobalt price. On the demand side, the decline of Smartphone Production and sales offset the growth of new energy vehicles. Generally, there is no new demand growth to bring benefits to the cobalt market, which is bad for the cobalt market. On the supply side, cobalt mining in the international market is still expanding, cobalt supply is increasing, and the overall supply and demand is still in the stage of oversupply. Generally speaking, the decline rate of cobalt price in the future market is bound to slow down. At this stage, it is a stage of market game. It is difficult to determine whether the price will rise or fall, but the falling space is limited. If cobalt price falls below 250,000 yuan/ton, it will encounter greater resistance. At the same time, the cobalt market is not fully motivated to rise. 350,000 yuan/ton is a high level that cobalt price is difficult to reach at this stage.
| barium chloride |