CMOC boosts cobalt production despite Congo export ban
China’s CMOC Group produced more cobalt at its two mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the first half of this year, despite the African nation’s ban on exports.
The world’s largest cobalt miner reported a 13% year-on-year rise in production of the material, also used in batteries and alloys, to 61 073 t during the January to June period, according to a preliminary earnings statement released on Monday.
The increase comes even as Congo - which accounts for about 70% of global cobalt output – recently extended an export ban first announced in February for another three months to September. The country cited “a continued high level of stock on the market,” as it attempts to rein in a global cobalt glut deepened by CMOC’s breakneck expansion in recent years.
That signals the Chinese company still produced slightly more cobalt in the second quarter, when the Congo shipment suspension was in force for the entire period. Output in the April-June period totalled 30 659 tons, against 30 414 tons in the prior quarter.
Spot prices of cobalt hydroxide have more than doubled since the export suspension. CMOC’s trading unit IXM has recently declared force majeure on such deliveries.
The Chinese miner said that its net income is likely to be between 8.2-billion yuan ($1.1-billion) and 9.1-billion yuan during the first half of the year, a jump of as much as 68% from a year earlier, due to higher prices and increased sales of cobalt and copper.
The firm’s output of copper – the two metals are extracted together in Congo – also rose 13% in the first half to 353 570 tons.
CMOC’s production of products, including cobalt, molybdenum and tungsten, has exceeded the company’s initial expectations, it said in a post on its website.
Shares of CMOC have surged more than 50% so far this year in Hong Kong.
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