Amid sustained demand growth, India plans to build a strategic reserve of critical minerals including lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and rare earths. The stockpile will be sized to cover six months of domestic consumption, aiming to guard against risks of global supply disruptions and sharp raw material price volatility. Led by India’s Ministry of Mines and Ministry of Heavy Industries, the reserve covers key raw materials essential for new energy vehicles, energy storage and the electronics sector, fields where India currently relies heavily on imports. At present, the United States, China, South Korea and other countries have already established strategic reserve systems for critical minerals.

Scrap tightening and a major nickel-cobalt producer's output cut pushed SHFE stainless steel to levels not seen since 2023 — yet physical demand remains conspicuously absent heading into the May Day break

According to Reuters, Glencore’s 2026 cobalt export quota, together with the carried-over volume from 2025, totals 22,800 tonnes. The company produced 5,800 tonnes of cobalt in the first quarter of 2026, down 39% year-on-year. Output from its Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) and Mutanda operations that exceeds allocated quotas is being stored locally in the DRC for future sale when market conditions improve. Constrained by export limits, the company is postponing the final processing of cobalt to cut processing costs. Current inventories at the two operations are sufficient to cover near-term export quota shipments. Glencore has mostly fulfilled its 2025 export quota in the first quarter, with the remaining volume shipped in April.

In mid-April, CATL announced plans to invest 30 billion yuan to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary, Times Resources Group, registered in Xiamen and positioned as a professional investment, operation, and management platform in the new energy minerals sector. This major move is not only a key step for CATL in building a closed-loop entire industry chain of "ore — materials — battery — recycling," but will also inject strong momentum into the extraction and reuse of rare and precious metal resources, driving the battery recycling industry from standardized development toward a new phase of technological breakthroughs and scale expansion. The core mission of Times Resources Group is to integrate global critical minerals resources such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt, while expanding into high-quality rare and precious metal mining projects. From an industry perspective, lithium, nickel, and cobalt are core raw materials for power batteries, while rare and precious metals such as gold, silver, and platinum group metals are indispensable in electronic devices and catalysts. Through this 30 billion yuan capital deployment, CATL can both ensure that its primary lithium resources self-supply rate rises above 35% and keep lithium chemicals costs below 50,000 yuan/mt, while also establishing stable raw material connection channels for rare and precious metal regeneration after battery recycling through full industry chain control of mineral resources. More notably, CATL hired Chen Jinghe, founder of Zijin Mining, as a mining consultant, leveraging his extensive experience in mineral exploration and extraction to further optimize resource development processes. This means the upstream extraction segment will place greater emphasis on green and efficient technology applications, such as adopting efficient leaching technology for low-grade ore and comprehensive recovery processes for rare and precious metal associated ore, improving resource utilization rate from the source, laying the raw material foundation for rare and precious metal regeneration in subsequent battery recycling, and achieving synergy between "primary extraction + secondary recycling."

The cobalt chloride market sentiment this week remained largely unchanged from the previous week, with bulls and bears continuing to wrestle and the stalemate yet to be broken. Supply side, top-tier enterprises maintained firm quotations, with mainstream quotations hovering around 116,000 yuan/mt, supported by solid cost support, with some transactions concluded at around 114,000 yuan/mt. Small and medium-sized producers, under pressure from capital recovery and shipments, lowered quotations to 112,000-114,000 yuan/mt, but actual shipments were limited, generally at 2-3 truckloads. Demand side, downstream enterprises gradually depleted inventory and began considering moderate restocking at low levels, with market inquiries becoming more active and transactions recovering slightly. Overall, the market still lacked clear momentum to drive a price breakthrough. Although low prices appeared from time to time, considering factors such as enterprise performance, capital conditions, and shipment volumes, they were unlikely to significantly impact the market. Currently, downside room was very limited, with raw material costs providing strong support. The cobalt chloride market is expected to remain largely stable in the near term.

The Co3O4 market operated steadily this week, with overall trading activity remaining subdued. Top-tier enterprises slightly lowered their quoted prices, but the periodic tight supply of cobalt intermediate products and persistently firm cobalt chloride prices provided effective cost support for prices. Downstream LCO material enterprises continued their purchasing as needed strategy, mostly restocking in small quantities based on orders on hand, with market inquiry activity remaining at a moderate level. Looking ahead, end-use demand performance remains the key variable determining cathode material procurement intensity. Given that market expectations for May are generally optimistic, attention should be paid to whether demand recovery can break the prolonged stable pattern and bring about periodic changes.