Cobalt is mainly used in manufacturing fields such as consumer electronics, power batteries, superalloys and cemented carbides. In recent years, with the rapid rise of the global consumer electronics market, the consumption of metallic cobalt has increased year by year. In 20021year, the global cobalt metal exceeded10.5 million tons, and it is predicted that the global cobalt metal consumption will further increase in 2022-2023.
The unit price of the global cobalt metal market continues to soar.
According to the data of London Metal Exchange, the purchase price of spot cobalt (Co_≥99.3%) has been soaring since the end of 2020, from about 365,438+000 USD/ton at the end of 2020 to 865,438+000 USD/ton in April 2022. Mainly due to the global COVID-19 epidemic, the transportation of cobalt raw materials has been greatly affected, especially in February 2020, when a nationwide curfew was imposed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the South African epidemic intensified, resulting in a tight global supply of cobalt metal and pushing the price of cobalt metal to remain high.
Consumer electronics is the main consumer market of cobalt metal.
Cobalt is hard, brittle and ferromagnetic. When heated to 1 150℃, its magnetism disappears. In addition, it does not interact with water at room temperature and is stable in humid air. Cobalt is an important raw material for producing battery cathode materials, heat-resistant alloys, cemented carbides, corrosion-resistant alloys, magnetic materials and various cobalt salts.
As early as 20 12, about 60% of cobalt metal in the world was used for high temperature and cemented carbide manufacturing; By 2020, the amount of cobalt in lithium batteries (including consumer electronics and power batteries) will exceed 60%, and the amount of cobalt in consumer electronics will exceed 40%. In recent years, the global cobalt consumption market has gradually shifted from the traditional alloy manufacturing field to the lithium battery market such as consumer electronics and power batteries.
From the specific market segments of consumer electronics, the global cobalt consumption is mainly concentrated in smart phones, laptops, tablets and other fields, among which the cobalt consumption of smart phones and laptops accounts for more than 20%.
—— The above data comes from the Analysis Report on Market Foresight and Investment Strategic Planning of China Nonferrous Metals Industry by Forward-looking Industry Research Institute.