The upward momentum in cobalt spot prices continued on Thursday June 17 with prices rising for the second consecutive day, and traders becoming aggressive in the market after sensing a return of demand…One trade for a standard tonnage was reported at $19.80 per lb, but this was not enough to stop the range from moving, given that six other trades clustered around $20.20-20.95 per lb…Fastmarkets' price reached a high of $25.30-25.80 per lb on March 10 before falling to $19.80-20.15 per lb on May 17-20.

Most producers of cobalt sulfate in China kept their offers high in the past week but buyers put up resistance and were cautious about placing orders, sources told Fastmarkets…Producers were asking for 71,000-73,000 yuan ($14,738-15,153) per tonne during the week, the same as a week earlier, but buyers were not willing to pay these amounts. As such, only a few deals were said to have been concluded in the past week, the details of which could not be confirmed at the time of writing…Cobalt sulfate prices have been largely stable since mid-May but producers have been raising their offers since early June on steady buying and with production costs remaining high due to...

I am honoured to be with you here today to kick-start the Session on the European Raw Materials Alliance of this Summit…Much has changed since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the European economy…The need to increase EU resilience and to make the twin digital and green transitions a reality is more relevant than ever in the current geopolitical and economic climate…With the crisis, it has also become clear that we need to reduce our dependencies and vulnerabilities. Access to resources is a strategic security question for Europe’s ambition to deliver the Green Deal and our digital ambitions…Last month, we presented an update of the 2020 Industrial Strategy, including an analysis of the EU’s strategic dependencies. Our assessment shows that for the energy intensive industries ecosystem, the EU is highly dependent on third countries for no less than 99 products. Such dependencies may present a risk for Europe’s supply chain security…It will not be a surprise to you that most of these products relate to raw materials…Already keenly aware of the need to ensure a sufficient supply of sustainable raw materials and reduce our economic and geopolitical dependencies in the area of critical raw materials, the Commission adopted the EU Action Plan on Critical Raw Materials last September. It contains 10 actions to build resilience of critical raw materials supply chains for EU industrial ecosystems…Thirdly, as announced in the EU Action Plan, we have also been developing a number of partnerships with resource-rich countries, to secure a diversified supply of sustainably mined critical raw materials away from a single source – which often is China. These partnership focus on the integration of raw material value chains between the EU and third countries, cooperation in the area of research and innovation and social and environmental criteria…Only two days ago, we endorsed the Raw Materials partnership with Canada at the EU-Canada summit.

The inflation scare that’s become a major theme in markets is getting fresh momentum from the climate-change battle and the huge economic transformation underway…As governments recognize the importance of climate action and push every corner of the economy to decarbonize, industries from glass to steel to autos are being left with little choice but to change how they make products and ultimately what they sell. The technical hurdles and investment involved mean it’s going to cost much more..The potential price hit from the green revolution is adding to the arguments about the inflation outlook that are already brewing as economies reopen from pandemic lockdowns and some commodity prices surge to record levels…Hitting net-zero targets requires investment of $5 trillion a year in energy systems by the end of the decade, more than double the average in the past five years, according to the International Energy Agency…In addition to investment costs, the transition is fueling a huge demand for key raw materials. Copper for example, vital for power grids and wiring for wind turbines, is up more than 60% in price in the past year…That situation could worsen, with the IEA warning last month of a “looming mismatch” between “climate ambitions and the availability of critical minerals” such as copper, nickel, lithium and cobalt..“If our solution is entirely just to get a green world, we’re going to have much higher inflation, because we do not have the technology to do all this, yet,” BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said this month. “That’s going to be a big policy issue going forward.”…Government carbon pricing policy is another factor in the equation…But even if businesses and consumers have to contend with a price hump as part of the epic energy transformation, it’s unlikely to be permanent. As governments offer incentives, more renewables are used and people change habits, a virtuous circle of production and demand should ultimately improve returns on green investment and reduce costs. In the case of electric cars, BloombergNEF estimates they’ll reach price parity with internal combustion vehicles starting in 2025…Falling prices are already being seen in some areas, such as solar power, which is down more than 90% in the past decade…“In the medium term, it’s still deflationary and that’s where people’s focus should be,” said Edward Lees, who co-manages BNP Paribas Asset Management’s Energy Transition fund. “The wind doesn’t charge you anything, the sun doesn’t charge you anything.”

Many manufacturers are planning to go fully electric as early as 2030 or 2040. Audi is ahead of the game and could be one of the first historic brands to make the transition to electric power by converting its entire range as early as 2026. This surprising rumor comes from the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung…According to the latter, Audi's CEO Markus Duesmann made these striking statements to the brand's top executives and employee representatives. And when the man said all electric, he was talking about fully electric vehicles, which means that even hybrids and plug-in hybrids will stop in 2026…Even if it is only rumor, this abrupt decision is plausible since Audi officially abandoned the development of combustion engines several months ago. If this is confirmed, it is very likely that Volkswagen will follow suit with the same deadline.