China's cobalt ore and concentrate imports may slow down in the second half due to high inventory at producers and weak demand downstream, said market participants. Demand from battery manufacturers, which consume about half of China's cobalt metal, has shrunk drastically after Beijing started in the past two months to clamp down on "emulational" — fake branded — mobile phones. "The impact from the government clampdown on fake mobile phones this time is huge. And the worse is, the government is also trying to put down fake battery production this year… this is painful," said an official of a major cobalt product manufacturer in northern China. One of the company's clients, for example, has been shut down recently by the government for producing fake branded batteries.