Fastmarkets rounds up the key discussion points at the 30th annual Cobalt Institute conference in New York, from May 12-14.

US President Joe Biden will increase tariffs on Chinese imports including steel and aluminium, electric vehicles, semiconductors and advanced batteries, to counteract China’s “unfair” trading practices, he announced on Tuesday May 14

Copper fabricators in China and the wider Southeast Asian region continue to feel the pain of high copper prices on futures exchanges and a lack of new orderbooks, with some having already asked for a postponing of shipments of long-term copper cathodes, sources told Fastmarkets in the week to Wednesday May 15

The US government announced on Tuesday May 14 that new Section 301 import tariffs will be imposed on a wide range of Chinese products and materials, including electric vehicles, steel and aluminium, semiconductors, batteries, solar cells and permanent magnets

This legislation emphasizes the crucial role of graphite in electrification efforts and highlights the ongoing significance of both natural and synthetic graphite in the EU's green transition journey

Standard Lithium announced on Wednesday May 8 that it was forming a partnership with the multinational energy company Equinor to accelerate the development of its South West Arkansas and East Texas lithium brine projects in the United States

Recent weeks have seen a significant number of miners agreeing sales of copper concentrate to traders for one to four years of supply, Fastmarkets has learned

The copper market is facing a historical moment with Chinese smelters now paying premiums for raw material copper concentrate while selling their finished product at a discount, but participants point to easing concentrate demand in the second quarter as supportive for the market

Spot lithium carbonate prices in China edged up over the week ended Thursday May 9 amid volatility in the futures market and weak demand after the country’s Labor Day holiday from May 1-5, sources told Fastmarkets

Raw material tightness added further pressure to imported zinc concentrate supply to China, with volumes dropping sharply in the first quarter and market participants saying that low availability of spot cargoes is not expected to ease in the short term.