The Democratic Republic of Congo has extended its ban on exports of cobalt by three months as the world's dominant producer of the battery metal tries to convert its supply power into pricing power…Congo's cobalt dilemma is how to restrict supply of a metal that is mined as a by-product of copper, an even bigger revenue earner for the resource-rich country…It takes around 90 days to ship Congo's intermediate cobalt product to China for refining, meaning the full impact of the February export ban is delayed…Consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimates stocks of cobalt outside Congo amounted to 8-10 months of global consumption in the second quarter of this year…Even with extended export controls by the world's largest producer, BMI reckons cobalt hydroxide stocks in China will only become physically low towards the end of next year…Any mining restrictions on Congo's cobalt producers would inevitably impact production of copper, which is currently in hot demand…Chinese operators in Congo, such as CMOC Group, have every incentive to keep digging as much copper out of the ground as possible. The cobalt comes free with it…Congo is the world's largest cobalt-producing country and CMOC is the largest producing company…With limited leeway to force companies such as CMOC or Glencore to produce less cobalt without forfeiting copper revenues, the government has been considering an export quota system…Enforcing export quotas rather than the current blanket ban, however, would be operationally tricky and would not tackle the inventory accumulating in the country…The Congolese government looks set a long stand-off with the cobalt market and it is not even clear what price level it is targeting…It could do worse than look at another Indonesian tactic, which is to link exports to commitments to build downstream processing capacity.

The United States and China have resolved issues surrounding shipments of rare earth minerals and magnets to the U.S., Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday, ironing out a dispute that stalled a deal reached in May…As part of its retaliation against new U.S. tariffs, China suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, upending supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world…During U.S.-China trade talks in May in Geneva, Beijing committed to removing the measures imposed since April 2, but those critical materials were not moving as fast as agreed, Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business Network, so the U.S. put countermeasures in place…"I am confident now that we -- as agreed, the magnets will flow," Bessent said…Trump said on Thursday the United States had signed a deal with China the previous day, but did not provide details…China has dual-use restrictions in place on rare earths which it takes "very seriously" and has been vetting buyers to ensure that materials are not diverted for U.S. military uses, according to an industry source. This has slowed down the licensing process…While the agreement shows potential progress following months of trade uncertainty and disruption since Trump took office in January, it also underscores the long road ahead to a final, definitive trade deal between the two economic rivals.

Exceptionally strong initial orders for Xiaomi's YU7 electric sport utility vehicle sent shares in the automotive newcomer to a record high on Friday and fanned speculation that Tesla may have to cut prices to fight back…In the first 18 hours after the YU7 went on sale, Xiaomi received some 240,000 orders that it considers locked in, with buyers having paid either a hefty deposit for ready-to-deliver cars or a smaller deposit for cars still to be made…The smartphone and appliance maker made a huge splash in China's electric vehicle market with the launch of its first vehicle, the SU7 sedan, in March last year. The car has outsold Tesla's Model 3 in China on a monthly basis since December and has even earned a rave review from Ford CEO Jim Farley…The YU7 is only its second model and priced from 253,500 yuan ($35,360), it undercuts Tesla's Model Y by nearly 4%. That will likely lead to more market share loss for the U.S. automaker, analysts said…As domestic rivals increasingly win over Chinese consumers with snazzy new features, Tesla's share of the Chinese EV market has fallen from a peak of 15% in 2020 to 10% last year and then again to 7.6% for the first five months of 2025…The YU7's base model is equipped with a 96.3 kWh battery pack, offering a driving range of up to 835 km (519 miles) on a single charge and supporting high-power fast charging…Its backseats have drawers for storage under them and the YU7's driver assistance software comes at no extra charge while Tesla charges 64,000 yuan for its smart driving software, he added.