Cobalt

Nickel the One Export Success Story in a Struggling Cuban Economy

by Stuart Burns on June 24, 2010

Style:    Category: Commodities, Global Trade, Minor Metals, Non-ferrous Metals

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On balance Cuba isn’t having a great time. True nickel prices are doing okay and production at the country’s principal mines is doing well. The largest, Pedro Soto Alba plant, is a joint venture with Sherritt International of Canada and hit a monthly record in February producing 106 tons daily while a second plant state-run [...]

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Cobalt Up, Moly Steady, How is the LME Doing so Far?

by Stuart Burns on April 22, 2010

Style:    Category: Commodities, Minor Metals, Supply & Demand

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The LME’s minor metals contract has been up and running for two months now and although both are at a nascent stage they have already begun to exhibit diverging patterns of behavior. Molybdenum prices have stagnated whereas cobalt prices have picked up markedly. Although it is premature to be drawing any conclusions at this stage [...]

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Cobalt and Molybdenum go Live on the LME

by Stuart Burns on February 23, 2010

Style:    Category: Minor Metals, Sourcing Strategies

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The London Metal Exchange started trading today of the long awaited cobalt and molybdenum contracts. A lot is riding on them; the exchanges previous new products, plastics and steel have been respectively a failure and at best a muted success. Plastic was removed from open cry trading this month and steel billets, currently traded as [...]

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Carpenter Introduces Alternative Material to Steel Alloys Containing Cobalt

by Lisa Reisman on December 9, 2009

Style:    Category: Environment, Ferrous Metals, Green, Product Developments

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As many a consultant might say, the best way to rid oneself of high material cost is to not design it in, in the first place! Though MetalMiner frequently looks at the range of metals categories from a strategic sourcing perspective, it would behoove us not to discuss various metal product innovations particularly when they [...]

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Alternative Strategies in Rising Metals Markets

by Lisa Reisman on April 10, 2008

Style:    Category: Ferrous Metals, Non-ferrous Metals, Sourcing Strategies

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I am reminded every day how sourcing strategies in today’s red hot metals markets don’t really resemble the strategies of just a couple of years ago. Today, we learned of a company whose China supplier needed to execute a contract cancellation clause because it couldn’t purchase its raw materials at a price to supply profitably. [...]

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And Yet Another Rising Cost Metal…

by Lisa Reisman on April 2, 2008

Style:    Category: Commodities, Ferrous Metals, Metal Fabricated Parts, Supply & Demand

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For years tungsten supply and demand used to hang in a balance if you will. This widely used but often overlooked metal featured as a significant cost inflator. Tungsten has been considered a strategic metal due to its use in cemented carbide parts for wear resistant applications such as drilling, mining and metalworking. In addition, [...]

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Can Cobalt Maintain its Meteoritic Rise in 2008? (Update)

by Lisa Reisman on March 24, 2008

Style:    Category: Commodities, Sourcing Strategies, Supply & Demand

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What a difference a day makes, or so the song goes. In this case it has been a couple of months since our last Cobalt post on January 16. At that time, Cobalt had reached $40/lb. and was widely tipped to top $50/lb during the year ahead. Here we are just three months into the [...]

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Can Cobalt Maintain its Meteoritic Rise in 2008?

by Lisa Reisman on January 16, 2008

Style:    Category: Global Trade, Inventory Stock Levels, Non-ferrous Metals, Supply & Demand

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For any consumer of Cobalt metal or components with any significant Cobalt content the price pressures must have been nigh on unbearable this past year. Driven by consumer demand and an element of speculative buying in the face of tight supplies, Cobalt has increased from $13/lb at the beginning of 2006 to $27/lb at the [...]

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