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Energy
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General Market Commentary
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General Energy
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General Market Commentary
Chinese control of cobalt supply risk for EU car industry - Glencore
LONDON, March 20 (Reuters) - Glencore chief executive Ivan Glasenberg said that the automotive industry is waking up too late to the fact that the Chinese will hold most of the world’s global cobalt supply, a key metal for electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
“If cobalt falls in hands of the Chinese, yeah you won’t see EVs being produced in Europe. They are waking up too late... I think it’s because the car industry has never had a supply chain problem before,” Glasenberg told the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland.
About 70 percent of global cobalt production comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Glencore, the world’s biggest producer, agreed last week to sell a third of its output to China’s GEM.