Commodity trading giant Glencore has withdrawn significant volumes of cobalt from China’s Wuxi exchange to meet its supply obligations to electric-vehicle battery manufacturers in the country, according to two sources familiar with the matter, as global availability of the metal remains constrained, Reuters reported.
The London-listed firm supplies cobalt to its Chinese customers from operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which accounts for 72% of global production, estimated at nearly 268,000 metric tons last year, based on data from Darton Commodities.
The Congolese government suspended cobalt exports in February last year to support prices after they fell to nine-year lows. That suspension stayed in place until export quotas were introduced in October.
One source said Glencore had previously shipped cobalt stockpiled in Malaysia to China last year, but the Swiss-based company no longer holds sufficient inventory to meet its contractual commitments in the Chinese market.
Cobalt inventories on the Wuxi exchange have dropped by more than half since late January to around 3,934 tons, with sources indicating that Glencore accounted for most of the withdrawals.
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Glencore declined to comment on the matter.
According to its 2025 production report, Glencore produced 33,500 tons of cobalt in Congo last year and plans to export 22,800 tons this year under the current quota system, which is expected to remain in place until at least the end of 2027.
“Cobalt produced (in Congo) in excess of the allocated quotas continues to be stored in-country and will be sold as circumstances allow,” the report stated.
Cobalt metal prices have surged 160% since February 2025, reaching $26 per pound, or $57,320 per ton, driven by supply shortages following Congo’s export restrictions.
In Congo, cobalt is produced as a byproduct of copper mining and is typically processed into hydroxide, which is then used to manufacture cobalt sulphate for lithium-ion batteries. Cobalt hydroxide is priced as a proportion of the cobalt metal price, referred to as payables.
Traders say these payables are now consistently quoted at record highs of 100%, compared with 55% in January 2025.
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Image Credit: Reuters
