CLA - Cobalt related news, page-3226

You are right, it really does not matter. The LME cobalt price "index" is a joke. If you dig a little bit, you find that there was actually zero cobalt volume traded on their market for the whole of 2019 through to now (download the historical volumes). That's right, completely nothing was traded. No idea how they can create a price index with zero trading, maybe just making up numbers as they go along?
I'm not sure about other price indexes like Shanghai Metals, but to me it is very clear that all the serious cobalt consumers NEVER participate in the spot market, particularly now that they are trying to use the IBM blockchain platform to ensure ethical cobalt sourcing:
Cobalt blockchain
Surely such a thing would rule out spot markets like LME. I don't see anywhere that says LME is participating in this blockchain initiative. To get to that state, they'd have to ensure that all their suppliers are on the blockchain.
Glencore signing 6 long-term supply contracts for cobalt in 2019, and now the Tesla deal, shows us that possibly all of the cobalt being mined and used in EVs and other high-tech devices come from these supply deals.
As for the real price of cobalt, without a reliable index, it is impossible to know for sure but consider this:
Let's say the price was $40k/mT, meaning $40 per kg. If an EV contained 10kg cobalt (being generous, it's probably less than that), that means the cost of cobalt per EV is $400. If the EV cost $20k to make, that means the cost of cobalt in that car was 2%. At cobalt price of $100k per tonne, that goes up to 5% of the cost. And remember, I'm being generous with the contained cobalt estimate here.
You'd have to think about what cobalt price would make these makers of EVs and phone batteries start to worry about total costs, which we know they have been for a long time now. 5% of cost? 10%? Work backwards from there and you will find the real price.