Recently, we hosted a tour of Cobalt 27’s Rotterdam warehouse – one of our three storage facilities that, together, host a total of 3,000 tonnes of cobalt.
The Port of Rotterdam is the largest in Europe and one of the largest in the World. Like our Antwerp and Baltimore locations, our facility there is LME-certified. The LME (London Metal Exchange) is the world centre for the trading of industrial metals and most non-ferrous metal futures business is transacted via the LME. To give you a sense of scale, in 2017 this equated to $12.7 trillion notional, 3.5 billion tonnes and over 157 million lots. Becoming certified is no easy feat but, once done, it de-risks the business and it’s one of our many advantages.
Ever wanted to know what millions of dollars of physical cobalt looks like? Check out the photo to the right. As Scott Patterson from the Wall Street Journal mentioned in his article after the visit, cobalt prices have risen 270% on the London Metal Exchange to about $80,000 a metric ton since early 2016. It really brings it home when you realize just how critical this metal is, to the continued growth of the lithium ion battery sector, which in turn is fueling a new industrial revolution.
Now technically the visit was for senior representatives from a number of financial institutions. After all, as industry demand for cobalt has increased, so too has interest in Cobalt 27. However, we also invited a few members of the financial Media along and the subsequent WSJ article is a good reminder of why our company has performed so well in such a short time. If you don’t have a subscription, let me throw in a couple of lines that stood out:
“Booming demand for cellphone and electric-vehicle batteries has created a once-unthinkable metals-industry player: the pure cobalt company.”
“Cobalt is now valued for its ability to withstand the intense heat generated by lithium-ion batteries.”
“Cobalt 27’s shares have quadrupled since it went public in Toronto in June, giving it a market value of about $370 million.”
“London commodities researcher CRU Group predicts that by 2030, annual demand for cobalt for lithium-ion batteries will be triple the roughly 100,000 metric tons a year produced globally today.”
Together, those quotes highlight the fact that Cobalt 27 combines the best performing asset class on the Toronto Stock Exchange – metals streaming and royalties, with the top performing commodity of 2017.
As demand for EVs and lithium-ion batteries continues to grow, so too does demand for Cobalt and with it, our ability to take advantage of additional growth in the cobalt sector. Increased demand also makes it easier for us to execute on our business plan. After all, it wasn’t just the journalists who were impressed by the visit to Rotterdam.
