Last week, the supply tightness in the cobalt raw material market persisted, with prices remaining robust. The primary driver was the export quota policy in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Although the unused quotas from Q4 2025 have been extended to March 2026, short-term incremental supply remains limited, and domestic smelters' raw material inventories are at low levels. Compounding this, the delayed commissioning of new overseas hydrometallurgical projects has intensified resource scarcity, leading to strong reluctance among traders to sell and tight availability of spot cobalt intermediate. With solid cost support from the raw material side, cobalt intermediates prices are expected to maintain a relatively strong and volatile trend in the near term.