LONDON (Reuters) -Glencore is no longer stockpiling electric vehicle battery material cobalt, its CEO Gary Nagle said on Wednesday, adding though that the market was likely to remain in surplus for another 18-20 months.

In August last year, Glencore said it had stockpiled cobalt in the first half of 2023, cutting supplies to the market to support prices of the metal.

Large surpluses of cobalt created by accelerating production of the metal over the last year in top producer Democratic Republic of Congo have pushed cobalt prices to around $12 a lb, the lowest since 2016.

"Our best guess now is it will probably take 18 to 24 months to work through this surplus," Nagle said at a briefing, adding that demand from the aerospace and defense industries was strong.

"We're not really stockpiling anymore, in fact we've actually sold down a bit of our stocks."

Nagle declined to comment on how much cobalt Glencore was holding in its stockpiles.

The cobalt market could remain over supplied by about 28,000 tons and 24,000 metric tons this year and in 2025, respectively, analysts at Macquarie said.

(Reporting by Pratima Desai and Felix Njini; editing by David Evans)