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Amendment to the cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam brands

Following an extensive consultation, Fastmarkets has amended the MB-CO-0005 Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb daily price assessment to include additional brands.

April 16, 2025
By Alexander Cook
Cobalt Pricing notice

Fastmarkets received an array of feedback regarding the proposed changes following the publication of the initial consultation on February 24 and the subsequent extension to the consultation on March 26 to April 9.  

After carefully reviewing the feedback received, Fastmarkets has decided to proceed with the inclusion of Greatpower cut cathodes, Hanrui cut cathodes, Lygend cut cathodes, and Tengyuan cut cathodes into the standard-grade brands list.  

Fastmarkets reviews all pricing data carefully to ensure that its price assessments reflect the open and competitive market level obtainable by a pool of liquidity for different brands within each cobalt metal grade market.

Before and during the consultation, Fastmarkets carefully tracked the liquidity of these additional brands and is confident that they are traded by a significant pool of market participants. Fastmarkets is confident the inclusion of these brands will not have a material impact on the price.

Following a significant volume of feedback regarding Umicore S1 powder, Fastmarkets will continue to consult on the inclusion of this brand in the standard-grade brands list for a further period as part of a separate consultation. Due to a limited liquidity pool for cobalt powder, Fastmarkets is seeking further liquidity data to help inform the proposed change.

Cobalt brands and the grades under which they are designated are under constant review by Fastmarkets. Fastmarkets continues to seek pricing data on brands not inclusive of the alloy- and standard-grade brand lists to help inform future data analysis and consultations.  

The new specifications are as follows, with the amended brands in italics. 

MB-CO-0005 Cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam, $/lb 
Quality: Min 99.8% cobalt metal; standard specifications of the following brands in original packaging: Katanga cathodes, Chambishi broken cathodes, CTT broken cathodes, Minara briquettes, Ambatovy briquettes, Norilsk grade 1 and grade 2 cut cathodes (production since January 2019), Sherritt briquettes, Vale Long Harbour standard grade rounds (99.8% cobalt), Jiangsu (KLK) cut cathodes, Huayou cut cathodes, Greatpower cut cathodes, Hanrui cut cathodes, Lygend cut cathodes, and Tengyuan cut cathodes. 
Quantity: Minimum 1 tonne, maximum 100 tonnes 
Location: In-warehouse Rotterdam, duty unpaid, customs uncleared 
Timing: Within 30 days, other terms normalized 
Unit: USD per lb 
Payment terms: Cash; other terms normalized 
Publication: Daily, Monday to Friday, 3pm London time 

This price is part of Fastmarkets’ minor metals package. 

To provide feedback on this price or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter to the cobalt metal price series, please contact Alex Cook by email at pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading “FAO: Alex Cook, re: Cobalt Brand Consultation.”

Please indicate if comments are confidential. Fastmarkets will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request. 

To see all Fastmarkets pricing methodology and specification documents, go to https://www.fastmarkets.com/methodology.

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