The cobalt sulfate and cobalt chloride market showed an overall weak performance last week, with the transaction price of cobalt sulfate continuing to decline and market differentiation becoming evident. Due to logistics bottlenecks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and delays in the implementation of export quotas, the circulation of cobalt intermediates remained low. Production lines for cobalt sulfate using cobalt intermediates as raw materials have largely halted operations because of raw material shortages. Meanwhile, the MHP process primarily serves integrated enterprises for captive use and does not participate in spot trading. As a result, current spot market transactions were almost entirely derived from two low-cost pathways, recycled materials and re-dissolved electrolytic cobalt, leading to continuously declining actual transaction prices and exerting downward pressure on mainstream quotations.