Unlike most other commodities, cobalt is primarily a by-product – with 60% derived from copper and 38% from nickel – so how will changes in those markets change the picture for cobalt in the coming months following a year of price weakness and oversupply in 2024?

Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers have been reaching upstream to producers, beyond their agreements with their battery manufacturing partners, to secure North American supply for their production, battery materials and technology company Novonix’s chief executive officer Chris Burns told Fastmarkets

The shift in China from nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries, which mainly use lithium hydroxide, to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which use lithium carbonate, is leading to a wider price spread between the two materials, prompting producers there to shift from hydroxide to carbonate.

China’s electric vehicle (EV) and battery industry participants expect more uncertainty under a second Donald Trump presidency amid the president-elect’s intention to scale back the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and pursue expanded protectionist trade policies, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday November 7

The market for silicon anodes is likely to develop rapidly, independently of growth in the ex-China graphite supply chain, according to the chief executive officer of a leading silicon anode producer.

Donald Trump’s second term as US president is not likely to have too much of an impact on China’s electric vehicle (EV) and new energy markets, despite broader concerns over potential tariff hikes which might bring challenges to both China and the US, sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday November 7.

Non-Chinese graphite producers were measured in their reaction to Donald Trump’s re-election on Wednesday November 6, predicting an unclear net impact of his potential policies on the build-out of supply chains for the battery raw material outside of China.

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) announced on Thursday October 31 a further $44.8 million in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) for eight projects to lower the costs of recycling electric vehicle (EV) batteries and EV battery components to ultimately decrease overall EV costs.

Lithium prices have fallen significantly, putting the cost of cells at 7.5% of the price of an EV as of August 2024 (Tesla Model 3 Base, USA), down from 15% in January 2023. Find out how falling raw materials prices are impacting auto OEMs and reshaping global EV pricing strategies

The growth in Chinese shipments of batteries for energy storage systems (ESS) is far outstripping the growth in deliveries of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), sources told Fastmarkets in the week to Friday November 1.