Platts proposes launching cobalt hydroxide CIF China assessment

S&P Global Platts proposes to launch a weekly cobalt hydroxide CIF China assessment from April 16, 2020.

The proposal to launch this assessment comes on the back of consistent and growing market demand for increased pricing information in the global cobalt hydroxide market, cobalt cathode market and the battery metals market as a whole.

Platts proposes the following specifications and terms for this assessment:

QUALITY:

Cobalt content: 30%

Manganese: 2-6%

Magnesium: max. 6%

Iron: max. 3%

Moisture: 10%

INCOTERM: CIF China

UNIT: lb

CURRENCY: USD

VOLUME: 50-150 mt

DELIVERY TIMING: 14-60 days forward

PAYMENT TERMS: Letter of Credit

TIMESTAMP: Thursday, 16:30 Singapore time

ORIGIN: All origins of cobalt hydroxide meeting these specifications would be taken into consideration, other grades of cobalt hydroxide may be normalized back to Platts base standards.

SUSTAINABILITY CRITERIA: Platts proposes to reflect only non-artisanal material. Platts is seeking feedback on standard documentation used to demonstrate compliance with this requirement.

In order to assess cobalt hydroxide, Platts will collect a wide variety of transactional and market information through a survey of industry participants, which typically includes, but is not limited to, communicating with sources via phone, email and instant messaging.

The new price would be published alongside Platts existing battery metals cobalt assessments on page 8890 of the real-time Platts Metals Alert, in Metals Daily and in Platts price database.

Please submit any feedback, comments or questions about this proposal to battery_metals@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com by Tuesday, March 17.

For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing. Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.