US Blames China’s CMOC for Predatory Tactics Behind Cobalt Glut

  • Chinese firm is flooding cobalt market, says US official
  • Low price harms Western industry development, Fernandez says
Raw cobalt on a conveyor belt in Katanga region of Democratic Republic of Congo.Source: Bloomberg
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China’s CMOC Group Ltd. is being accused by a top US official of using “predatory” tactics to depress prices of a key battery metal by flooding the market with cobalt from Democratic Republic of Congo mines.

“What we’re seeing now, I feel, is a variation of predatory pricing,” Jose Fernandez, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, said Monday at a conference in New York sponsored by the Cobalt Institute industry group.