Influence of the RC Industry Caused by Cobalt Price Increase

[betty]

Cobalt price has been dramatically raised since 2017. Due to the intense demand and supply relationship, Cobalt price still seems to increase in the next two years. As the most important raw material in RC batteries. How much cobalt price increase will have a straight?

Cobalt Price Raising Trend

Tight supplies continued to push cobalt prices higher in the week ended Friday January 26. Raises of cobalt begins from early 2017 and this rising trend has been carried onto 2018. As a major part of the Lipo battery material, the increase in Cobalt price is having strong effect on the Lipo battery pricing and related RC fields.

Source: Basic to Advanced Battery Information from Battery University

Cobalt increased 2,500 USD/MT or 3.24% to 80,000 on Tuesday January 30 from 80,000 in the previous trading session. Historically, cobalt reached an all time high of 80000 in January of 2018.

Source: TradingView

Cobalt prices are likely to rise significantly in the next two years as the industry struggles to meet rising demand from batteries used in electric vehicles, BMO Capital Markets said.
Being a major element in Lipo batteries production, cobalt is currently non replaceable. As the raise in cobalt price, final products Lipo battery are foresee to be raised accordingly.

Effects to the RC industry

RC batteries are consumables in day to day RC activities. The raise of cobalt directly affects the cost of RC hobby itself. In order to maintain our high standard of the use of raw materials, Gens ace have to reduce the profit, at the same time also go through only a small percentage of 10% price raise across the product line. There’s possibility of another adjustment to be made including Tattu batteries depending on the cobalt price in the future.

Actions took on some suppliers

Some suppliers choose stay with the current price or event discount on products in order to win the price war. However due to the huge change of the raw material it’s impossible to make a profit. Many will substitute lower quality raw materials for cobalt to cut down the cost. Choosing a reliable brand like Gens ace for your RC batteries is quite important at this moment.
Tips for RC fans

With many uncertain factors, weather or not the price raise of raw material price could bring in a large scale of manufacturer’s price increase, is still remains to be seen. From consumer point of view, timing to stock up your RC consumables can also be a very tricky question.
Totally 60% increase to Cobalt price after year of 2017 and another 30% increase took place in just the first month of 2018. To avoid another round of price increase in the near future, it seems to be a best solution now to plan your consumption and stock up what you need for the next racing season or rest of the year.
New material has been discovered by scientists to place the cobalt to resolve the shortage of raw material issue, such as grapheme, iron etc. Of course, the lab is a long way from the track. Massive production of batteries based on new materials still have long way to go.
For general RC funs, it could be wiser to wait until you actually need to restock despite the increase of battery. In addiction, it also saves you from batteries maintenance while storing in the shelf.
For heavy RC players. Since the amount of batteries consumed. There seems to be less point to wait until you actually need to restock. You don’t know when to expect the next price raise. Best solution will be plan your battery for the coming racing season or even rest of the year.

Conclusion:
Cobalt price will still seems to be in raising trend in the future. There is no sign to show when and where the tread will stop. What is you opinions on the cobalt price raise? Welcome to join in the discussion.

[durok]

Interesting thread, I'd read some mumblings about this subject elsewhere...

I'd say this makes it all the more important to recycle batteries properly, as the cobalt can be retrieved.

BTW - "betty" - you only seem to post about LiPo batteries... are you affiliated with a battery company?

Just curious...

[Hydrocarbon92]

I definitely noticed the price after last summer. I bought some big 4S Gens Aces for a crazy low price, which they were at for months. By fall they went up 50% or more. The smaller batteries didn't seem to increase as much, but I speculate that's because they already had a higher profit margin so there's more take a hit on. I was hoping it was some winter fad.

It's quite likely Betty is part of a "street level" PR campaign by some source affiliate with Lipo's, but it's still nice to know WTF is up with Lipo prices. The articles I've dug up are confusing, first siting car batteries as the main "fuel" for the price hike, but then state that only makes up for 10% of the market. It seems more like the mines are trying to set the price high before demand really skyrockets in the next decade.

[Ditchrat]

I just picked up a half dozen 2200mah, 3s 50c batteries for $11.00 each shipped. There are deals out there is you look.

[StomperCrawler]

Originally Posted by Ditchrat

I just picked up a half dozen 2200mah, 3s 50c batteries for $11.00 each shipped. There are deals out there is you look.

Where? Link?

[mewalsh100]

I just read about this in Barron's. I think I might have to get some stock that involves cobalt, or a mining entity that mines it!

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by Ditchrat

I just picked up a half dozen 2200mah, 3s 50c batteries for $11.00 each shipped. There are deals out there is you look.

Holy sh-tballs that's cheap! Maybe you can post a review and a link once you've had a chance to run them / cycle them a few times and generally check them out. I'm always a tad leery on super cheap knock off batteries though......

[mewalsh100]

Best price I could find...........

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gens-Ace-3S...EAAOSw9IpXyx52

[JatoTheRipper]

I doubt the RC industry is the biggest user of cobalt. Ground RCs seem to be stagnant or maybe in a recession, but the drones are all over these days.

But still other electronic devices and electric vehicles probably use way more cobalt than the RC industry.

[jumper]

I agree with Jato while RC is pretty large to us because we dabble in it. The EV stuff is huge, I know tesala uses a lithium variant think of how many MAH's are in those cars! I would be willing to bet the battery pack in one tesala is more lipo than probably a dozen hobby RC'ers use in a life time.

[svt923]

Originally Posted by jumper

I agree with Jato while RC is pretty large to us because we dabble in it. The EV stuff is huge, I know tesala uses a lithium variant think of how many MAH's are in those cars! I would be willing to bet the battery pack in one tesala is more lipo than probably a dozen hobby RC'ers use in a life time.

There are 400+ cells in each Model S pack so I'll have to agree.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by svt923

There are 400+ cells in each Model S pack so I'll have to agree.

Damn that probably gives quite a long run time since Teslas break down so often!

[Ditchrat]

Originally Posted by StomperCrawler

Where? Link?

Sorry but I have no plans of posting my source and having it dry up. Did that once with D90 bodies that I was getting for $30.00 shipped, in a week it went to $45.00 shipped and out of stock.

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

Holy sh-tballs that's cheap! Maybe you can post a review and a link once you've had a chance to run them / cycle them a few times and generally check them out. I'm always a tad leery on super cheap knock off batteries though......

Most of them come from the same set of factories. Only thing that I will say at the moment is the 50c discharged had no problems in the 19 degree weather, the the 30c had to repeatedly be changed and warmed up.

I got 2.5 hours out of it trailing and crawling on my brushless rig, which to me was fantastic.

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

I doubt the RC industry is the biggest user of cobalt. Ground RCs seem to be stagnant or maybe in a recession, but the drones are all over these days.

But still other electronic devices and electric vehicles probably use way more cobalt than the RC industry.

Colbolt is a by product of copper mining, copper is flat and the mines are not running at full capacity, thus not as much extra colbolt laying around.

[Jim85IROC]

I'm willing to bet that RCs and electric vehicles combined don't use as much battery material as the smartphone/tablet market.

Worldwide there's probably a billion smart devices with lithium batteries.

[Ditchrat]

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

Best price I could find...........

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gens-Ace-3S...EAAOSw9IpXyx52

You need to learn how to refine your searches as little better. After I read this I ebayed 3s 2200 mah and came up with 3 listing under $12.00, 4 under $14.00, and 20 under $16.00. All prices included shipping, some with multiple discounts. Most 25c witch is adequate, but one of the $12.00 was 60c.

[Hydrocarbon92]

I actually saw an auction for Gens 2200's last week for $15 but they just sold out today.

[jumper]

I think floreon (spelling) is probably the cheapest going for small 2200 mah 3s packs. The last 4 I bought with deans on the ends I picked up for about 9 bucks a piece free shipping on ebay unless you have a source. They are decent little packs most crawlers don't push a pack hard enough to hurt them. Though I have ran them pretty hard in wrexo to the point where they came off the truck moderately warm and they never puffed. Another good deal on small 2s packs are the dromedia quad batteries I found them at the LHS for 12 bucks a pop and they have a star plug on the end (deans clone) I bought a few of those for my Kids twin hammers and they do great.

[BigSki]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

I doubt the RC industry is the biggest user of cobalt. Ground RCs seem to be stagnant or maybe in a recession, but the drones are all over these days.

But still other electronic devices and electric vehicles probably use way more cobalt than the RC industry.

I'd think that the power tool industry ( Stanley Black and Decker, Milwaukee to name a few) is probably one of the biggest users of Lithium Ion batteries, which I would clump in with the 'electronic devices' category.

[Hydrocarbon92]

Looks like the seller relisted a few more Gens Ace 2200's:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/183063025762?ul_noapp=true

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Hydrocarbon92

Looks like the seller relisted a few more Gens Ace 2200's:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/183063025762?ul_noapp=true

25C is gutless, to me, I'd rather go up to 50C for a few more bucks.