Daniel Fletcher-Manuel

Benchmark has observed no cobalt hydroxide trades over the past 10 days, leading to the daily price assessments to hold steady at $22.00–$23.00/lb. However, Benchmark has noted a widening spread between bids and offers, which are reported between $17.00–$22.00/lb in Benchmark’s weekly cobalt price assessment. Benchmark's daily CIF Asia cobalt hydroxide assessment only accounts for confirmed  transactions rather than indications, sentiment, or levels at which somebody says they would be willing to deal, which means it tracks evidenced trades and nothing else. That design choice is usually invisible to the user, because in a functioning market the distance between a trade and a well-informed indication is small, but in a week like this one it becomes the whole picture. Put those two series side-by-side and the market becomes legible, because the sell-side remains anchored to the level where material last actually changed hands while the buy-side has marked itself down five dollars, or roughly 23% below it. Nothing has traded across that gap, so the bid has not been validated by a single transaction and the offer has not been tested by a single buyer willing to lift it.

BMI's latest lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide and spodumene data shows where price risk is concentrated across the next 12 months, and what that means for procurement, offtake and hedging decisions.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is pleased to announce the launch of 44 rare earth permanent magnet price grades, bringing a new level of transparency to one of the most opaque and strategically important markets in the energy transition supply chain. The new service, launching Thursday 2 April, will cover rare earth permanent magnet prices across Japan/South Korea, Europe, North America and China, offering market participants an independent benchmark for tracking price movements across key magnet products and regional markets.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is pleased to announce the launch of its Lithium Forward Price Curves, providing the market with a new benchmark for year-ahead lithium price expectations across key battery raw material grades.

Battery materials markets have entered a new phase. What were once niche industrial inputs are now strategic commodities underpinning electric vehicles, energy storage, and national industrial policy. Demand has scaled quickly, supply chains have globalised, and investment has accelerated. Price discovery, however, has struggled to keep pace. Fragmented regional pricing, inconsistent methodologies, and sentiment‑driven signals have made it harder to understand what prices are really saying. In many cases, the noise has grown louder just as the need for clarity has increased. Today, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) launches its most significant pricing expansion to date. The launch introduces more than 2,500 proprietary price assessments, covering every major battery raw material, chemistry, and producing region globally.