LEADING cobalt producers operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo could forfeit portions of their first-half export allowances after a technical fault hit a customs registration system, industry sources and a letter reviewed by Reuters indicate.
Because fresh rules call for unused allowances to be clawed back, the breakdown puts shipments of the battery ingredient at risk for top global miners, the newswire said. One person in the sector estimated that up to 20,000 tons could go unshipped, valued near $1.1bn at today’s prices.
Congo supplies roughly 70% of global cobalt output and is home to operations run by China’s CMOC and Britain-listed Glencore, respectively the top two producers worldwide, along with Eurasian Resources Group and Huayou Cobalt.
Kinshasa has progressively clamped down on the trade through halts and allocation limits aimed at propping up prices, which have climbed 160% since early 2025 to roughly $57,320 a ton. ARECOMS, the country’s minerals authority, gave companies until July 5 to use first-half allocations before surplus volumes get reassigned elsewhere. A mining executive said 60-75% of firms would likely miss that cutoff because of paperwork holdups. A separate annual ceiling of 96,600t applies for 2026 and 2027.
A July 2 letter from the Chamber of Mines to ARECOMS said exporters have been locked out of filing customs declarations since July 1, blaming the regulator’s failure to formally authorize continued processing.
Firms have pressed ARECOMS and the prime minister’s office for a fix and a deadline extension. A CMOC source said the company sought a one-month extension and could otherwise lose nearly its entire second-quarter quota.
Regulators and CMOC did not respond to comment requests, said Reuters.
