It marks a turnaround for the grade, which saw payables and demand at much lower levels than those for nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) materials back in May – a time when cobalt metal prices were experiencing constant declines.
Fastmarkets assessed cobalt standard grade, in-whs Rotterdam at $16.00-18.50 per lb on Wednesday, up by $3.00-3.60 per lb month on month.
“It seems demand for LCO black mass is on the rise due to the price increase in Fastmarkets’ cobalt prices,” a South Korean consumer source said on Wednesday. “NCM black mass CIF Korea is offered at more than 80% for nickel and cobalt, with the value of lithium included.”
“The price we think is workable for NCM black mass is still 75% cif for nickel and cobalt with lithium included. For us, there’s no point of following the material [being sucked out] to China because it will only make the market confused,” he added.
Fastmarkets heard rumors of a deal involving Japanese NCM black mass sold to Southeast Asia at more than 90% CIF over the last week, far exceeding the values that Korean buyers were able to pay.
LCO black mass was heard sold at 82% FOB India for cobalt including the value of lithium, which would convert to 84-85% CIF South Korea if it were sold to the East Asian country, according to a trading source.
“We couldn’t get anything at our previous prices so we had to raise our bids. Payables just keep going up,” the trader said.
Fastmarkets’ assessments of the black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, cobalt, cif South Korea, % payable Fastmarkets’ standard-grade cobalt price (low-end), and the black mass, NCM/NCA, payable indicator, nickel, cif South Korea, % payable LME nickel cash official price, were both 73-80% on Wednesday, up by 3-5 percentage points from 70-75% previously.
Korean recyclers have been gearing up for battle with buyers in China and Southeast Asia given recent rises in black mass demand in those regions spurred by higher battery metal prices. But South Korean demand is also rising with the recent completion of the major POSCO HY Clean Metal plant.
“Cobalt salts prices have increased significantly and could be even higher, however Fastmarkets cobalt prices also reacted accordingly and supply liquidity [of cobalt salts] is still okay, so we do not see obvious changes on the salts premium,” a Chinese battery materials producer source said.
“Cathode active materials demand in China could be better than in the first half of the year, but it should be only [slow] growth, so that may lead the black mass payables to remain similar here, if there are no other surprises,” he added.
Both LCO and NCM black mass would be acceptable at a maximum price of 75-80% CIF South Korea for cobalt including the value of lithium this week, according to a second trading source.
“We did a few trades, but payables were all over the place. The market level is 75-80% CIF South Korea [for nickel and cobalt payables including lithium value],” the second trader said, adding that he was seeing a “definite interest” in separate lithium payables from an increasing number of sellers given higher lithium prices than a couple of months ago and also in line with greater interest in market transparency.
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