Scarce metals have become the new gold. Investors are now investing as a geopolitical battle for such metals is emerging and prices are rising. The price of rhodium, a raw material used to make automotive catalytic converters, has risen by 75% this year alone and by 200% since the start of the corona crisis. The number of police reports of catalytic converters cut off by criminals under cars is increasing. Thanks to a record price, thieves are diving everywhere on the metal that is offered to recyclers. Prices of raw materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite are also on the rise, these metals are the hard core of batteries for electric cars and jet engines. There is stock worldwide, but new mines take years to be able to extract them.
Buying lists The demand for the metals for battery cars will only grow for the time being, according to ING Research. The environmental measures tightened up in the Paris climate agreement mean that polluting production with iron ore, steel and coal will be phased out. Investors walk through the purchase lists of rare metals that are becoming increasingly popular. They are also already looking at gallium, indium and platinum varieties. Also on the lists of "critical" metals is the dark gray beryllium, which is sought after in aerospace for its strength and limited weight. For example for the next generations of communication satellites. Tantalum is extremely resistant to metal corrosion and is therefore used in liquid metal containers, enamelled drums and jet engines. Fluorspar is also in demand, it is found in cement, glass and iron and lithium makes batteries more energy efficient. Rhodium is becoming scarcer: in combination with platinum and other metals, it can significantly reduce car emissions. Not well known, but electric toothbrushes can only make tens of thousands of rotational movements thanks to small magnets that work with scarce metals such as dysprosium, boron and neodymnium. Everyone runs to the same mines for such metals. Copper Revolution President Biden last week announced a US infrastructure investment plan that spans $ 2,250 billion. The entire road network is being overhauled, thousands of windmills and charging pole systems for battery cars are being built. Also for the fleet of the White House. Prices of tarmacadam for roads, kobolt and lithium are rising due to the expected demand from suppliers. Less scarce, but very popular for battery cars and the cabling of thousands of wind turbines is copper, which is widely used in construction works. Europe is emerging from the corona crisis after the United States and will also start purchasing more of the copper and rare materials for its industry and battery cars. Both regions notice that China, which has come out of the corona lockdowns earlier, has been buying up since April last year. Stocks are being hijacked, scarce metals are the subject of political power struggles. According to professor Rob de Wijk in his study The New World Order, China has the best strategic priority in this regard. For a decade, China has been restricting its own exports of rare metals, which are needed for lightweight metals for aircraft and windmill wings. China itself is not the largest battery metals miner, but 80% is processed there in its enormous industry, according to researcher Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. The power game According to market analysts, the Chinese Bureau of State Reserves recently bought up considerably more than the average in recent years at the very low corona crisis prices. Even a third more to the buyer. Copper prices have doubled since March last year to above $ 9,000 per ton. Trading house Trafigura, a large copper merchant, foresees a rise in the copper price to $ 15,000. His economist Graeme Train attributes this to a historically unprecedented increase in demand. PwC, consultant for companies, has been warning corporate executives in the automotive, defense and chemical industries for the "ticking time bomb." With a growing population claiming the same prosperity, the demand for rare metals is outstripping supply.
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