How a battery metals squeeze puts EV future at riskвЂ¦ Factory lines churning out power packs to fuel a clean energy future are being built faster than strained supply chains can keep up. Automotive manufacturer Renault Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with Morocco-based cobalt producer Managem for the supply of cobalt sulfateвЂ¦ Renault, Managem sign agreement for cobalt sulfate supply. MoroccoвЂ™s Managem to supply Renault with cobalt for EV batteriesвЂ¦ Under this seven-year supply deal, Managem will supply Renault with 5,000 tonnes of cobalt sulfate annually starting from 2025. A new bull market may start in the second half of this decadeвЂ¦ Cobalt will probably drop to an average of $59,500 a ton next year from roughly $80,000 nowвЂ¦ Still, prices could soar again after 2024. Cobalt, lithium, nickel to fall in the next two years: Goldman. Goldman says bull market in battery metals is finished for now. Extraction of raw materials will not meet soaring battery demand unless capital markets change course in the face of environmental, social and governance pressures and invest heavily in new mines, says business data and analytics company GlobalData in its вЂBatteries вЂ“ Thematic ResearchвЂ™ reportвЂ¦ An emerging challenge for the next decade will be whether extraction of natural resources and raw materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite can meet the soaring demand for batteries. Severe global battery shortage likely post 2025, GlobalData forecasts. The stockpile includes valuable minerals essential to defense supply chains, such as titanium, tungsten and cobaltвЂ¦ вЂњIf we do wind up in a conflict with a country which is where weвЂ™re getting our lithium or cobalt, for instance, or other rare earths, we could go to the strategic reserve,вЂќ Kelly told Defense News. The House Armed Services Committee will seek to bolster the National Defense Stockpile of rare earth minerals in the fiscal 2023 defense authorization billвЂ¦ the Defense Department submitted its own legislative proposal to Congress asking the committee to authorize $253.5 million in that legislation to procure additional minerals for the stockpile. IEA BMI 2022 forecast for cobalt вЂ“ Deficits building starting from 2024Д¬ongress and Pentagon seek to shore up strategic mineral stockpile dominated by China.

Source: UBS courtesy Carlos Vincens LinkedInДў021 IEA forecast growth in demand for selected minerals from clean energy technologies by scenario, 2040 relative to 2020 вЂ“ Increases Of Lithium 13x to 42x, Graphite 8x to 25x, Cobalt 6x to 21x, Nickel 7x to 19x, Manganese 3x to 8x, Rare Earths 3x to 7x, And Copper 2x to 3x UBS UBS forecasts Year battery metals go into deficit UBS UBSвЂ™s EV metals demand forecast (from Nov. Cobalt demand v supply forecasts UBS cobalt supply and demand forecast вЂ“ Growing deficits from 2023

More details on cobalt pricing (in particular the more relevant cobalt sulphate), can be found here at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence or Fast Markets MB.Д¬obalt spot prices вЂ“ 5-year chart вЂ“ USD 32.54 LME Cobalt inventory is 206 tonnes, similar as 207 last month. Cobalt price newsДЄs of June 23, the cobalt spot price slightly fell to US$32.54/lb, from US$33.75/lb last month. Meanwhile, EV leader Tesla (Elon Musk) warned that battery supply chain material shortages are a вЂњparamount concernвЂќ, which also tends to argue against GoldmanвЂ™s thesis. The report was refuted by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and most battery metals experts. The past month saw a controversial Goldman Sachs report claiming battery material prices would fall heavily in the next 2 years but may soar again after 2024. Welcome to the June 2022 cobalt miners news.

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