Canada’s fleet average emission standards for passenger cars and light-duty vehicles will remain frozen until 2029 at 172g of CO2 per mile. The strength of the standards will begin to increase from 2030 as Canada targets 75% of new vehicle sales being electric vehicles by 2035, which it says will be equivalent to fleet average emissions of 74g of CO2 per mile. 

Mark Carney, Canadian Prime Minister, and Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, have committed to investing CAD 8.7 billion (USD 6.2 billion) into Ontario’s automotive and steel industries, as well as its critical mineral supply chain. The investment comes accompanied by various policies across the three sectors that aim at supporting their economic growth amid Canada’s weakened trade relationship with the US.

Cobalt market participants at the recent Antaike Nickel and Cobalt Forum (13–15 October) and LME Week (19–23 October) events in China and London respectively have uniformly reported weak pricing sentiment. This is driven by soft LCO demand and large stocks of cobalt sulphate, precursor cathode active material (pCAM) and recycled material in China. Huayou, Greatpower, Tengyuan and CTT have halted metal production, while Greatpower’s salt line is running at only 20% utilisation.

George Whitcombe, Senior EV Analyst, Benchmark; Matthew Bird, Senior Editor, Benchmark