Many requests by the DLA have been extended or cancelled, demonstrating the challenges of obtaining critical materials, many of which with defense applications…The US government under President Donald Trump has rapidly ramped up stockpiling efforts for critical minerals, and invested in a number of projects producing them, in areas where existing supply is overwhelmingly geographically concentrated…This has signaled the return of a critical minerals policy trend last seen in earnest during the Cold War amid heightened geopolitical tensions…Through the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the US government has announced plans to stockpile metals ranging from bismuth, which is mostly used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, pigments and low-melting-point alloys, to cobalt, which is widely used in high-temperature superalloys for engine parts…In several markets where current supply appears to have been found insufficient to meet the stockpiling demand, a renewed investment drive has taken place, with US government bodies taking stakes in, or signing offtakes with, a number of new producers, announcements reviewed by Fastmarkets suggest…The DLA makes its intentions to stockpile materials clear by publishing Requests for Proposals (RFPs), which invite interested companies to submit proposals that meet the specified criteria outlined in the RFP…The agency also publishes Requests for Information (RfI) to gather market insights and sourcing strategies for different materials from industry participants…For decades, the DLA has maintained a physical inventory of materials on government property and in government-managed warehouses, known as the National Defense Stockpile (NDS)…The NDS was first established during World War II as a safeguard to ensure the military could access materials that are essential during times of national emergency, including metals, minerals and agricultural supplies…Following the end of the Cold War, the Department of Defense (DoD) decided that most of these materials were no longer needed, and by 1993, Congress had authorized the disposal of over 99% of them, according to the Library of Congress’s Research Service…On January 20, Trump signed the Unleashing American Energy (EO 14154) executive order, setting a mandate to “ensure that the National Defense Stockpile will provide a robust supply of critical minerals in the event of future shortfall.”…And on April 7, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA), allocating $7.5 billion for critical minerals, of which $2 billion to expand the national stockpile by 2027…The DLA’s request to acquire cobalt has been less successful…On August 18, the DLA issued a request for high-purity alloy-grade cobalt, used in aerospace and defense, with a contract value of up to $500 million, with a “guaranteed” $2 million, over five years. That equaled approximately 7,500 tonnes by Fastmarkets’ calculations. The DLA sought three specific Western brands, certified for use in rotating engine parts, preferably from one supplier, according to the documentation…After several extensions, the DLA canceled the request on October 24, citing outstanding issues with supplementing paperwork (on the scope and timeline), with a view to reissuing the request…The US has no active primary mined or refined cobalt metal production at the present time…The DLA held an estimated 302 tonnes of cobalt in its stockpile in 2022, as per the most recent numbers from the USGS. In 1990, the stockpile held more than 24,000 tonnes of cobalt, with the DLA opting to sell portions of this volume back into the market over time.

It's been almost 10 months since the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world's dominant cobalt supplier, halted exports of the battery metal…The withdrawal of supply from the country that accounted for 70% of global mine production last year has been a booster for the bombed-out cobalt price…The CME spot cobalt metal has risen from $10 to $26 per lb since February. Cobalt hydroxide , the form of the metal exported by Congo, has surged from $6 to $23 per lb over the same time-frame…As the supply hiatus lengthens, the impact on the cobalt processing chain grows. Even if Congo's exports resumed tomorrow, the material would only arrive in China towards the end of the first quarter of next year…A drawdown of Chinese cobalt hydroxide stocks was always anticipated, given Congo's allocated export quotas for the next two years are around half the country's previous shipping levels. But the seven-week delay since the quota announcement will serve only to accentuate the inventory depletion…The best-case scenario, one where exports resume in the next few days, is a severe but short supply squeeze in the early months of 2026 before deliveries to China arrive…But there is also the growing risk of a more profound supply crunch, generating another swing of cobalt's boom-and-bust pricing cycle…Cobalt use in EV batteries rose by a marginal 2,300 tons last year, less than the extra 2,700 tons used in the portable electronics sector, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence's quarterly report, opens new tab for the Cobalt Institute…EV battery demand is forecast to grow by a more robust 6,800 tons this year due to rising Western sales of electric and hybrid vehicles.

The European Commission has adopted its RESourceEU Action Plan – a package of policy and financing measures aimed at reducing the bloc’s dependence on external suppliers of critical raw materials and fast-tracking domestic and partner-country projects…The plan builds on the recently enacted Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) and seeks to shield European industry from geopolitical shocks while boosting competitiveness across key value chains, including electric vehicles, defence, industrial motors, aerospace, AI chips, and data…At the heart of the plan is a push to accelerate project permitting, mobilise up to €3-billion over the next 12 months for strategic supply initiatives, and create a new institutional architecture to coordinate supply chain resilience across the EU…From early 2026, the Commission will establish a European Critical Raw Materials Centre to provide market intelligence, manage strategic project portfolios, and coordinate financing with public and private partners. The centre will also support joint purchasing and stockpiling – tools the Commission views as essential to protecting the Single Market from price spikes and geopolitical interference…To boost recycling capacity, the Commission will introduce export restrictions on permanent-magnet scrap and waste from early 2026, with similar actions for aluminium – and possibly copper – to follow. 

The global energy transition needs investment of a further $304-trillion, Glencore CEO Gary Nagle pointed out during the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed diversified mining and marketing company’s Capital Markets Day 2025…The global energy transition investment of $9.6-trillion made so far has reduced fossil fuel’s share of global demand by 7%, Nagle reported. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)…The Glencore commodities to support the pathway requiring that further $304-trillion investment were displayed on a slide that listed copper, cobalt, nickel, aluminium, zinc, vanadium and steelmaking coal – metals used in items including batteries, solar power, wind power, electric vehicle mobility, electronics, grid, AI infrastructure and packaging….“That's true, but the world has spent nearly $10-trillion on the energy transition, and the use of fossil fuels has gone down from 85% to 79%. That's all that $10-trillion has managed to achieve, and when you look at it in absolute terms, the pie has grown….“Going forward, that $10-trillion to be able to achieve what the world says they need to achieve, is, all of a sudden, $300-trillion, which is how much needs to be spent on the energy transition…“We've all been seeing the numbers, the number of passenger vehicles, the number of solar panels, the number of wind turbines, whatever it may be, these need the commodities that we have.