We’ve been writing about cobalt for a while now.
It’s one of the key-ingredients in lithion-ion batteries, which if you don’t remember, are on their way to powering our world. They’re already in our laptops and cellphones, and they’re the main component of electric cars.
The lithium-ion battery market is positioned to jump from a nearly $30 billion dollar industry in 2015, to one that could reach $77.42 billion by 2024, according to Transparency Market Research.
This means that cobalt demand is going to soar (more than it already has) and prices are going to rise. Remember, cobalt is difficult to mine for because nearly all of it is a by-product of nickel and copper –so it’s extremely difficult to produce.
All that said, cobalt has had a spectacular year.
Lows of this year were $10.44, and cobalt is currently sitting at $24.72, just $0.91 away from year highs of $25.63.
Quartz wrote, “The financial markets have an unlikely new hero. In recent months, the best way to make a serious amount of money in a short amount of time has been to buy cobalt… Already, more than 50% of cobalt production is destined for use in batteries…”
The price of cobalt has more than doubled in the past year and as the markets increasingly demand electric vehicles and efficient batteries, those prices are going to keep hiking.
