Posted on 03/19/2025 8:22:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. firms are buying cobalt metal produced in Indonesia by China's Lygend Resources that does not incur the tariffs placed by the Trump administration on imports direct from China, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed extra import tariffs on Chinese goods since taking office in January, as well as placing levies on key trading partner Canada, another key source of cobalt, used in aerospace, for the U.S.
Lygend's cobalt metal production in Indonesia pre-dates the latest tariffs, industry sources say, with cobalt produced by the group in the country first exported to the U.S. last year by traders with U.S. customers.
But the traders shipping its cobalt are using Indonesia's tariff-free status to sell metal more cheaply to U.S. customers facing levies on Chinese and Canadian supply, the sources said.
"U.S. consumers can get cheaper cobalt from Lygend - the metal comes from Indonesia and not China," a cobalt industry source said. "Now there are tariffs on Canadian imports, more U.S. buyers will look to Indonesia."
Lygend did not respond to requests for comment.
Chinese companies dominate cobalt production in Indonesia, where it is a byproduct of nickel.
Though still small, cobalt metal sales had more than doubled by January from first deliveries in November, rising to 121 from 58 metric tons, with a three-month total of 290 tons worth $9.6 million, data from information provider Trade Data Monitor (TDM) showed.
Cobalt shipments to the U.S. directly from China, the world's top producer, fell after U.S. President Trump in his first term imposed a 10% levy on Chinese imports in 2018 and raised it to 25% in 2019.
With the latest 10% hike, U.S. importers would have to pay 35% tariffs on shipments of Chinese-origin cobalt,
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
This shouldn’t be a surprise - the basis of all international trade systems and tariffs are national origin - not the nationality of the corporate shareholders.
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