Samsung buys Congo cobalt, page-31

China has tightened its grip on the global cobalt market, signing a huge agreement with Glencore for three years of supply of the key electric car battery metal. Shenzhen-listed GEM said the agreement would provide them with more than 50,000 tonnes of cobalt over three years for its battery materials production. That figure represents about half the total amount of cobalt produced in the world last year and a third of the output of Glencore’s — the world’s biggest cobalt miner — forecast production between 2018 and 2020. The deal highlights China’s ambitions to dominate the electric car industry, and take on western car giants that have dominated petrol car sales since Henry Ford rolled out the Model T in 1908. GEM is one of the largest suppliers of material to Chinese electric car battery company CATL, which said this week it had become the largest battery supplier in the world, based on its sales last year to companies including Volkswagen and BMW. China already produces more than 80 per cent of the world’s refined cobalt, which is used in everything from batteries that power smartphones to Tesla’s electric car. About 10 kilogrammes of cobalt is used in an electric car battery — more than 1,000 times the amount used in an iPhone — according to BMO Capital Markets. The price of the metal has more than doubled over the past two years as carmakers scramble to secure supply to meet their ambitious plans for electric cars. Volkswagen said this week it had awarded €20bn worth of contracts to secure battery supplies. More than 60 per cent of globally produced raw cobalt ore comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Glencore is the largest producer, followed by China Molybdenum, which bought the Tenke Fungurume mine for $2.65bn in 2016. Pricing for the deal with GEM was not disclosed. Ivan Glasenberg, Glencore’s chief executive, has said that the miner would not sign fixed price deals for cobalt supply with any company. “With the rapid growth of global new energy car production . . . cobalt has become a global resource in short supply,” GEM said. To meet rapidly growing demand from carmakers, Glencore is increasing its output from the DRC from 39,000 tonnes this year to 65,000 tonnes in 2019 and then reducing slightly to 63,000 tonnes in 2020. Under terms of the deal, GEM said it would get 13,800 tonnes this year, 18,000 tonnes in 2019 and 21,000 in 2020. The $4.6bn company, which is China’s largest recycler of batteries, said supply of recycled metal could no longer meet its needs. “The company’s need for cobalt is increasing daily, and the company’s recycled cobalt resources cannot satisfy our strategic demand,”