A Chinese mining company has gained control of more than a third of the world’s cobalt supply—and the U.S. is worried about getting cut off. 一家中国矿业公司已经控制了全球超过三分之一的钴供应,而美国则担心被切断。
U.S. officials are accusing China-based CMOC Group of flooding the market to make it harder for others to invest in producing cobalt, which is used in jet fighters, munitions, drones and electric-vehicle batteries.美国官员指责中国洛钼集团大量涌入市场,让其他国家更难投资钴生产,钴用于喷气式战斗机、弹药、无人机和电动汽车电池。
“The players are new, but the playbook is old,” said Jose Fernandez, a State Department undersecretary in charge of international energy policy. “That predatory conduct is hurting not only the competition,” but it is also jeopardizing America’s energy transition, he said.“参与者是新的,但剧本是旧的,”国务院负责国际能源政策的副国务卿何塞·费尔南德斯说。他说,“这种掠夺性行为不仅损害了竞争”,而且还危及美国的能源转型。
CMOC says its higher production is a byproduct of higher copper output—the metals are mined together—and it is acting responsibly.洛阳钼业表示,其较高的产量是铜产量较高的副产品(这些金属是一起开采的),并且该公司正在采取负责任的行动。
The sudden rise of an obscure company to a position of dominance in the mining industry is a study in how Chinese companies are spreading around the globe, often to feed the country’smanufacturing machine. 一家默默无闻的公司突然崛起,在采矿业占据主导地位,这是对中国公司如何在全球范围内扩张的研究,通常是为了满足该国的制造机器的需求。
CMOC’s story is linked to China’s leading position in electric vehicles and EV batteries. Cobalt, used for centuries to make brilliant blues in paint and pottery, has found a modern role in EV batteries because its high energy density helps EVs travel farther on a single charge.洛阳钼业的故事与中国在电动汽车和电动汽车电池领域的领先地位有关。几个世纪以来,钴一直被用来在油漆和陶器中制造出绚丽的蓝色,现在它在电动汽车电池中发挥了重要作用,因为它的高能量密度有助于电动汽车一次充电行驶更远。
The world’s largest EV battery maker, China’s CATL, holds nearly a quarter of CMOC through a subsidiary. CATL has two representatives on CMOC’s board.全球最大的电动汽车电池制造商中国宁德时代通过子公司持有洛阳钼业近四分之一的股份。宁德时代在洛阳钼业董事会中有两名代表。
A CATL Qilin battery on display at an auto show in Shenzhen, China. 中国深圳车展上展出的宁德时代麒麟电池。
CMOC jump-started its growth with two big purchases in the Democratic Republic of Congo from Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan. The first was in 2016 for $2.65 billion, followed by another $550 million deal four years later. 洛阳钼业通过在刚果民主共和国从总部位于凤凰城的自由港麦克莫兰公司进行两笔大笔采购,推动了其增长。第一笔交易发生在 2016 年,金额为 26.5 亿美元,四年后又一笔金额为 5.5 亿美元的交易。
Freeport’s longtime chief executive and current chairman, Richard Adkerson, said after signing the first deal that it “breaks my heart to do it.” The U.S. company said it needed to reduce debt during an industry slump, and once that deal happened, holding on to the undeveloped second property didn’t make sense.自由港公司的长期首席执行官兼现任董事长理查德·阿德克森 (Richard Adkerson) 在签署第一份协议后表示,“这样做让我心碎”。这家美国公司表示,在行业低迷时期需要减少债务,一旦交易达成,继续持有未开发的第二处房产就没有意义了。
The Chinese buyer had a longer vision. CMOC’s then-chairman, Li Chaochun, said he invoked the opening lines of Charles Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities” when addressing his board about the 2016 deal, telling them that while it seemed like the worst of times for mining, the deal could bring a spring of hope. 中国买家的眼光更长远。洛阳钼业时任董事长李朝春表示,他在向董事会介绍 2016 年交易时引用了查尔斯·狄更斯的《两个城市的故事》的开场白,告诉他们虽然现在看起来是矿业最糟糕的时期,但该交易可能带来希望的春天。
CMOC said it brought the second mine, near the Congolese village of Kisanfu, into production in record time relative to its size, catapulting the company past Switzerland-based Glencore to become No. 1 in cobalt mining.洛阳钼业表示,其位于刚果 Kisanfu 村附近的第二座矿山以其规模而言,以创纪录的速度投入生产,使该公司超越瑞士嘉能可 (Glencore),成为钴矿开采领域第一大矿。
CMOC produced nearly as much cobalt in the first half of this year as it did all last year. It is expected to produce roughly 92,000 metric tons of cobalt in Congo in 2024, or 38% of global mine supply, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.洛阳钼业今年上半年的钴产量几乎与去年全年持平。根据 Benchmark Mineral Intelligence 的数据,预计 2024 年刚果钴产量约为 92,000 吨,占全球矿山供应量的 38%。
With supply surging, cobalt prices are plumbing eight-year lows. 随着供应激增,钴价跌至八年来的低点。
A copper and cobalt mine owned by CMOC in southeastern Congo. 洛阳钼业旗下位于刚果东南部的铜钴矿。
A buyer’s market 买方市场 Western officials say CMOC’s decision to keep ramping up cobalt sales, instead of holding back more in stockpiles, is stymieing investment by others.西方官员表示,洛阳钼业决定继续增加钴销售,而不是增加库存,这正在阻碍其他公司的投资。
In a remote part of Idaho, an Australian company called Jervois Global pays around $1 million a month to take care of an idled mine that would be the only cobalt-focused mine in the U.S. It also has a mothballed cobalt refinery in Brazil.在爱达荷州的一个偏远地区,一家名为 Jervois Global 的澳大利亚公司每月支付约 100 万美元来管理一座闲置矿山,该矿山将成为美国唯一以钴为主的矿山。该公司还在巴西拥有一家被封存的钴精炼厂。
Chief Executive Bryce Crocker said Jervois’s cobalt in Idaho couldn’t be mined profitably. The Kisanfu mine, now the world’s largest for cobalt, “is obviously an enormous step-change in supply, which is taking time for the market to absorb,” he said.首席执行官布莱斯·克罗克 (Bryce Crocker) 表示,Jervois 在爱达荷州的钴开采无法盈利。 Kisanfu 矿现在是世界上最大的钴矿,“显然是供应方面的巨大变化,市场需要时间来消化,”他说。
A CMOC representative said stockpiling cobalt was costly and inefficient. “Cobalt is, and will continue to be, a buyer’s market, and there is no strategic or commercial advantage in holding a dominant position,” the representative said.洛阳钼业的一位代表表示,储存钴成本高昂且效率低下。 “钴现在是、并将继续是买方市场,占据主导地位并不具有战略或商业优势,”该代表表示。
The representative also rejected the notion that CMOC was trying to corner a key metal for batteries, observing that cobalt-free chemistries accounted for a rising portion of EV batteries. 该代表还否认了洛阳钼业试图垄断电池关键金属的说法,并指出无钴化学品在电动汽车电池中所占比例不断上升。
“U.S. officials’ understanding of cobalt remains stuck in the early days of battery development,” the representative said. Still, analysts said batteries using cobalt remained important for Western carmakers.“美国官员对钴的理解仍停留在电池开发的早期阶段,”该代表表示。尽管如此,分析师表示,使用钴的电池对于西方汽车制造商来说仍然很重要。
China’s decision last year to restrict the export of gallium, germanium and graphite—minerals needed for high-performance chips and batteries—was a reminder of its hold over the world’s mineral resources and power to disrupt the West. 中国去年决定限制镓、锗和石墨(高性能芯片和电池所需的矿物)的出口,这提醒人们它对世界矿产资源的控制以及扰乱西方的力量。
The U.S. and allies including Canada, the U.K. and Australia have established a partnership to shore up supplies of critical minerals such as cobalt. Vice President Kamala Harris has proposed building a national stockpile of critical minerals, seizing on an idea that has been discussed by Washington lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.美国与加拿大、英国和澳大利亚等盟国建立了合作伙伴关系,以支持钴等关键矿物的供应。副总统卡马拉·哈里斯提议建立一个国家关键矿物储备,抓住了华盛顿两党立法者讨论过的一个想法。
“Ultimately, if the U.S. wants to have a stable source of domestic supply in the face of overwhelming market dominance from a geopolitical competitor, then it is going to have to intervene in some way, shape or form,” said Crocker of Jervois Global. “最终,如果美国希望在面对地缘政治竞争对手压倒性的市场主导地位时拥有稳定的国内供应来源,那么它就必须以某种方式、形式或形式进行干预,”Jervois Global 的克罗克表示。
China’s miners tend to be speedy on deals, helped by loans from state-backed banks, while Western companies may struggle to get funding for mines, especially in places plagued by corruption or political instability, say industry and government officials.
“We don’t have state champions, and we can’t just tell our companies where and how to invest,” said Fernandez, the State Department undersecretary.
CMOC has said it aims to rank among the world’s top 10 copper producers this year. 洛阳钼业表示,今年的目标是跻身全球十大铜生产商之列。
Rise of CMOC 洛阳钼业的崛起 CMOC started life in 1969 as the state-run owner of an operation that processed molybdenum, which is used to make steel stronger and less likely to rust. A Shanghai-based private-equity firm, Cathay Fortune, took a leading stake in 2004 for the equivalent of less than $30 million. 洛阳钼业成立于 1969 年,当时是一家钼加工企业的国营所有者,钼用于使钢铁更坚固且不易生锈。 2004年,总部位于上海的私募股权公司国泰财富以不到3000万美元的价格获得了主要股份。
Now CMOC is valued at more than $20 billion with operations across the globe and 63-year-old Yu Yong, who controls Cathay Fortune has made it into the top 200 on the Forbes global billionaire list.如今,洛阳钼业估值超过200亿美元,业务遍及全球,国泰财富的控股者、63岁的于勇已跻身福布斯全球亿万富豪榜前200名。
CMOC’s first-half copper output doubled year over year, and the company has said it aims to rank among the world’s top 10 copper producers this year. China has only a sliver of the world’s copper reserves, and the metal is expected to be in high demand because it is used in electric vehicles and data centers needed for artificial intelligence.洛阳钼业上半年铜产量同比增长一倍,该公司表示今年的目标是跻身全球前十名铜生产商之列。中国的铜储量仅占世界的一小部分,预计这种金属的需求量很大,因为它用于电动汽车和人工智能所需的数据中心。
Sun Ruiwen, CMOC’s chief executive, has said his company’s fate is linked to China’s national ambitions. 洛阳钼业首席执行官孙瑞文表示,公司的命运与中国的国家雄心息息相关。
“At all critical junctures, the endorsement by the state, as well as the instructions and guidance from relevant national departments, have played a crucial role” in CMOC’s global expansion, Sun said in a speech cited on a Chinese government website last year.孙在去年中国政府网站上引用的一次讲话中表示,“在所有关键时刻,国家的认可以及国家相关部门的指示和指导,在洛钼国际的全球扩张中都发挥了至关重要的作用”。