PRICING NOTICE: Cobalt pricing consultation reminder

Metal Bulletin would like to remind cobalt market participants that they are invited to contribute to a consultation period, which may or may not result in changes to its cobalt pricing system.

Metal Bulletin would like to remind cobalt market participants that they are invited to contribute to a consultation period, which may or may not result in changes to its cobalt pricing system.

The consultation, which started in January 2014 and will run until the end of June, will enable Metal Bulletin to consider the views of anyone affected by this possible change.

The proposal below may be implemented from January 2015, but only if it is supported by market participants.

Low-grade metal proposal
For a trial period from January 2015, Metal Bulletin will continue to publish a low-grade cobalt metal price on Wednesdays and Fridays.

However, it is considering doing so solely on the basis of the London Metal Exchange prices, and not based on transactions gathered by its pricing reporters, as it has done historically.

If, following conclusion of the six-month consultation period, the above change is implemented, the market will be informed well in advance of the date of implementation.

If implemented, for a trial period of at least one year the Metal Bulletin low-grade cobalt range on published on Wednesdays and Fridays will be based on the London Metal Exchange official cash cobalt price on Wednesdays and Fridays.

An implementation date of January 2, 2015 is proposed.

The high-grade cobalt range, also currently published on Wednesdays and Fridays, will continue to be assessed by Metal Bulletin’s editorial team.

Both prices will continue to be published on a dollar-per-lb basis (low-grade prices will be converted from an LME dollar-per-tonne basis to a dollar-per-lb basis), and prices will continue to be published online in the current format on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Metal Bulletin will also continue to publish LME cobalt premiums/discounts for specific brands.

Metal Bulletin will inform the market of a final decision in the next few weeks.

Please contact Fleur Ritzema at fritzema@metalbulletin.com for more information or to contribute your views to the consultation. 

Click here for more information. 

Fleur Ritzema 
fritzema@metalbulletin.com
Twitter: FleurRitzema_MB

What to read next
Fastmarkets has launched MB-AL-0424 Aluminium P1020A premium, fob Indonesia, $/tonne on July 9 due to an expected increase in Indonesia-origin aluminium exports. MB-AL-0424 Aluminium P1020A premium, fob Indonesia, $/tonneQuality: P1020A or 99.7 % Minimum Al purity (Si 0.10% max, Fe 0.20% max) in line with LME specifications. Ingot, T-bar, sowQuantity: Min 500 tonnesLocation: FOB IndonesiaTiming: […]
Information came to light that mill buying offers had been adjusted for July following Fastmarkets’ settlement of these prices on that date, leading to an incorrect published assessment for the following grades: MB-STE-0789 Steel scrap No1 heavy melting, consumer buying price, fob Montreal, Canadian $/net ton was previously published at C$245 ($179.41) per net ton, a C$10 […]
Fastmarkets has corrected its daily AG-PLM-0012 refined bleached deodorised (RBD) palm olein, fob Indonesia price assessment, which was published incorrectly on July 7 due to an input error.
Fastmarkets has had a strong interest in the proposed new assessments and would like to gather additional information on the specification and grades that should assess.  Based on the feedback, the proposed specifications have been updated as follows:  Quality: Selected Nordic (Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian) export grades of both planed and rough sawn timber spruce (whitewood) […]
While Fastmarkets understands that the PIX sawn timber FAS Finland indices have not been widely adopted by the industry, we have received feedback that there is commercial use for the indices. Therefore, we propose to maintain them for the time being.  The following indices are affected:  The extended consultation period for this proposed discontinuation starts […]
To increase the transparency of our methodology, Fastmarkets clarifies that the quotation period of the MHP nickel payable indicator is the month of delivery, or the month M. Any data points Fastmarkets received otherwise will be normalized to the M month based on the monthly spreads of the prevailing exchange-traded Class-1 nickel reference price, or […]