I. Trend analysis
According to the monitoring data of business associations, cobalt prices fell slightly this week, and the volatility of cobalt market remained stable. As of August 23, the price of cobalt was 262000.00 yuan/ton, a slight drop of 2.24% compared with 268000.00 yuan/ton at the beginning of the week, and 46.33% compared with the same period last year.

II. Market Analysis

New Energy Vehicle Market

Data released by the China Automobile Industry Association show that for the first time in the year, the number of new energy vehicles declined year-on-year. In July, 84,000 new energy vehicles and 80,000 new energy vehicles were produced and sold, down 6.9% and 4.7% respectively from the same period last year.

Mobile phone market

According to the report released by CITIC, in July 2019, the total shipment volume of domestic mobile phone market was 34.19 million units, down 7.5% from the same period last year; in January-July 2019, the total shipment volume of domestic mobile phone market was 220 million units, down 5.5% from the same period last year. Mobile phone sales fell sharply, cobalt market demand fell, cobalt Market negative pressure increased.

International Cobalt Price

This week, cobalt prices in LME market remained stable, the international cobalt market remained stable, the cobalt market had limited profit, and the cobalt market had insufficient momentum to rise.

Future prospects:

Bai Jiaxin, a data analyst with business associations, believes that the shutdown of Jianeng Cobalt Mine at the beginning of August caused a sharp rise in cobalt prices, and that the cobalt market was full of momentum. However, with the news cooling down, the supply and demand of the market began to affect the rise and fall of cobalt prices. In terms of demand, new energy vehicles fell for the first time in July, mobile phone market showed a downturn in 2019, and overall cobalt market demand dropped significantly. On the supply side, Glencore still has a large stock to meet market demand. There is no shortage of supply in the cobalt market. The effect of the shutdown of Glencore’s cobalt mine on global supply may not be obvious until the second quarter of 2020, and the supply-demand relationship will remain stable in the short term. The cobalt market has entered a stable period of industry, and it is expected that the fluctuation of cobalt price will remain stable or rise slightly in the future.