Electric vehicles overtook smartphones and personal computers for the first time last year as the main source of demand for cobalt, a rare metal used in lithium-ion batteries.
The automotive industry consumed 59,000 tonnes of cobalt in 2021, or 34 per cent of total demand, as sales of electric and hybrid vehicles doubled, according to a report by the Cobalt Institute.
That outstripped the 26,000 tonnes of metal used in mobile phone manufacturing and 16,000 tonnes in laptops and tablets. Total demand for cobalt was 175,000 tonnes against mined supply of 160,000 tonnes.
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