Rumours that China’s State Reserve Bureau (SRB) is undertaking...

Rumours that China’s State Reserve Bureau (SRB) is undertaking significant purchases of cobalt to stockpile the country’s strategic reserves have now been confirmed, further chasing up the price.Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is anticipating a minimum of 2,000 tonnes of cobalt metal to be purchased by the SRB, with an upper range of 5,000 tonnes.Annual cobalt production is only around 130,000 tonnes, mostly as a byproduct of nickel and copper mining. Of that, roughly 30,000 tonnes is in metal form which makes even just 2,000 tonnes a significant market mover.The SRB made similar purchases in 2014–2016, says Benchmark: “The link between all of these recent cobalt stockpiling efforts is that the purchases were all taken in a low-price environment, as such this could mark a point where cobalt prices begin a sustained rise.” QUOTE.
Movement in the market beginning to take effect IMO.

https://www.mining.com/cobalt-price-rally-boosts-mining-com-ev-metal-index/