Huayou Cobalt's 2025 revenue increased by 33% year-on-year, with the rebound in cobalt prices boosting net profit by 47%, reaching a historic high | Financial Report Highlights

Huayou Cobalt's 2025 revenue increased by 33% year-on-year, with the rebound in cobalt prices boosting net profit by 47%, reaching a historic high | Financial Report Highlights

Driven by the recovery of cobalt prices and the expanding demand for new energy, Huayou Cobalt has delivered its best performance since going public.

Huayou Cobalt released its 2025 annual report, stating that during the reporting period, the company achieved operating income of 81.019 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32.94%; net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 6.11 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47.07%, marking the highest level in the company's history since its establishment.

Total assets reached 159.438 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.73%; equity attributable to shareholders was 48.295 billion yuan, up 30.72% year-on-year.

Behind the strong growth in performance, export control policies from major supplier countries have pushed cobalt prices to rebound sharply, coupled with the sustained high growth of the global new energy vehicle market — according to EVTank data, global new energy vehicle sales in 2025 grew by 29.1% year-on-year, and global lithium-ion battery shipments increased by 47.6% year-on-year.

Stable Revenue Structure, Continuous Improvement in Profit Quality

Looking across the quarters, Huayou Cobalt's revenue and profits have shown a trend of strengthening each quarter: in the fourth quarter, operating income reached 22.078 billion yuan, and net profit attributable to shareholders reached 1.894 billion yuan, both being the highest single-quarter levels for the year.

Annual net profit excluding non-recurring gains and losses was 5.793 billion yuan, an increase of 52.64% year-on-year, surpassing the growth rate of net profit attributable to shareholders, demonstrating highly solid performance quality.

Key financial indicators improved simultaneously:

Asset-liability ratio fell from 64.38% in 2024 to 61.85%; interest coverage ratio increased from 2.91 times to 4.28 times, an increase of 48.62%; EBITDA to total debt ratio rose from 0.21 to 0.25, enhancing both debt repayment capacity and operational safety margin. Weighted average ROE was 13.70%, up 2.01 percentage points from the previous year.

Strong Cobalt Price Rebound, Supply Dynamics Reverse and Boost Performance

The rebound in cobalt prices is one of the core catalysts for Huayou Cobalt's performance surge in 2025.

According to the International Cobalt Association, the global effective supply of cobalt in 2025 was about 120,000 tons, a sharp decrease from the previous year due to export control policies by major supplier countries; meanwhile, global cobalt demand was about 214,000 tons, up 4.4% year-on-year.

The supply-demand dynamic shifted from structural surplus to supply tightness, pushing cobalt prices into a supply-driven upward cycle.

USGS data show that in 2024, cobalt production in Congo (DRC) accounted for 75% of the global total. The concentration at the supply end makes policy disruptions especially impactful on prices. As a company deeply invested in cobalt and copper resources development in Africa, Huayou Cobalt's resource business directly benefited from this price recovery trend.

Structural Divergence in Lithium Battery Materials, Long-Term Strengthening of Ternary Material Logic

In 2025, the market for lithium battery cathode materials showed clear structural divergence.

According to ICC Xinluo lithium battery data, lithium iron phosphate production reached 3.938 million tons, up 63.0% year-on-year, becoming dominant in the energy storage and mid- to low-end vehicle markets due to cost advantages; ternary material output was 1.033 million tons, up 7.4% year-on-year, with relatively moderate growth, but continuing to dominate the high-end performance market.

Huayou Cobalt's new energy and new materials businesses both focus on the ternary route. The company's ternary precursor products have been widely used in the supply chain of high-end electric vehicles such as Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, Hyundai, Stellantis, GM, Ford, etc., and it has signed a supply framework agreement with Tesla.

The company believes that as the industrialization of large cylindrical batteries and solid-state batteries accelerates, and as emerging scenarios such as embodied intelligence and low-altitude economy arise, the demand for high energy density cathode materials will keep expanding, opening up new growth space for ternary materials.

Nickel Prices Fluctuate at Low Levels, Policy Variables Dominate Supply-Demand Expectations

For nickel business, according to INSG data, global nickel supply in 2025 was 3.81 million tons, demand was 3.60 million tons, the oversupply pattern continues, and nickel prices remained mainly at the bottom range throughout the year, rebounding sharply towards the end of the year due to expectations of tightened Indonesia RKAB quota policies.

Huayou Cobalt's development of nickel-cobalt resources in Indonesia is the strategic core of its upstream resource layout, with main products being crude nickel hydroxide, high-grade nickel matte, and other nickel intermediates.

Policy trends such as Indonesia RKAB quotas have become key variables in the global nickel supply-demand balance, directly affecting the costs and production planning of the company's resource business. Looking forward, the company believes emerging demand for high-nickel ternary batteries and nickel-based alloys will bring new development opportunities to the nickel industry.

Lithium Carbonate V-shaped Reversal, "Dual Engine" Strengthens Lithium Demand Floor

In terms of lithium carbonate, according to Mysteel data, global supply in 2025 was about 1.78 million tons with demand at about 1.678 million tons, an oversupply of about 103,000 tons, mostly concentrated in the first half of the year.

With rapid expansion of energy storage demand in the second half, the supply-demand pattern improved significantly, and prices followed a V-shaped trajectory, first declining then rebounding.

Huayou Cobalt's lithium business covers its own mining, ore selection, and primary processing, with main products including spodumene concentrate, lithium feldspar concentrate, and lithium sulfate, serving as upstream raw materials for domestic lithium salt production.

The company believes that the dual-engine demand structure of power batteries and energy storage will provide long-term and solid support for lithium carbonate.

 

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