esla Loses When China has Control of Congo’s Cobalt

Some fundamentals of the cobalt market. Apologies if this has been posted before.
China has secured most of the world's production in the DRC. And not surprisingly this has led to stockpiling in China, presumably to squeeze the price. This will hurt all battery and downstream manufacturers which don't have access to the Chinese production, i.e. US companies such as Tesla and possibly Apple.

http://investorintel.com/cleantech-intel/lundin-minings-congo-decision-copper-cobalt-affected/

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What does this mean for us? North America is import dependent for cobalt and cobalt-derived products like paints, pigments, magnets and oxides. If China controls the production and processing of cobalt, the western world becomes highly dependent upon China’s whims. It also means that China will have some ability to influence cobalt pricing – imagine the leverage through the London Metals Exchange if China simply backlogs cobalt sales for several months.
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