Trafigura’s $600 Million Cobalt Play Faces Cash Crunch in Congo
- Trading house is seeking new funds for flagship Chemaf project
- Cobalt prices have slumped and project has overshot its budget
This article is for subscribers only.
Trafigura Group has been forced to seek new funding for one of its flagship investments — a $600 million copper-cobalt project in the Democratic Republic of Congo — in the latest headache for the trading house’s embattled metals business.
The project being developed by Chemaf SA, a longtime partner of Trafigura, has run into difficulties amid cost overruns and weak cobalt prices according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.