Cover Story
Fall 2018 / Issue 59
Ever growing demand for metals
and minerals in the global market
Analysis by AmCham Macedonia
B
eing an essential part to the global economy,
leader in most value chains and global generator
of trade and employment, the mining and met-
als sector is expected to face growing demand
in the future according to International Council
of Mining Minerals-ICMM. Coal, iron ore, copper, baux-
ite, phosphate and potash would be primarily demanded,
which in correlation with the difficulties to bring new mines
on line, would lead to dramatic rise of mineral and metal
prices.
Population growth,
urbanization and industrialization
Global population growth, urbanization in China and other
Asian countries and industrialization have altogether cre-
ated a strong demand for minerals and metals (World Eco-
nomic Forum, 2009 - Mining and Metals Scenarios to 2030
and World Economic Forum, 2015 - Mining and Metals in
a Sustainable World 2050). Statistics state that currently the
population number is set to 7.6 billion and is expected to
reach 9.8 billion by 2050 (UN, 2017), whilst the majority of
the population nowadays lives in the cities for the first time
in history. Urbanization and industrialization as a phenome-
non are projected to continue to rise especially in developing
countries and subsequently shall increase economic activity
through consumption and production; which in parallel with
millions of individuals being on a quest for better quality of
living would result in strong demand growth for minerals and
metals.
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AmCham Macedonia Magazine
China’s strong demand
for minerals and metals
China’s economy is facing a decline in GDP growth rate
that seems to be dropping from 10 % to 7.5 %, which
according to researchers is considered to be the country’s
attempt to join the league of affluent nations. However, China
as an important driver of demand is expected to continue
growing although at a slower rate and will shift from an invest-
ment-led to a consumption and service driven economy,
mainly achieving this state through government policies such
as wage increase, financial reforms for employment boost
and ultimately opening the market including the mining sector
to more competition. In terms of mining and metals, China
would continue importing huge number of commodities from
overseas and expectations are that the forthcoming major
mining companies would predominantly come from China,
India and other developing countries (ICMM, 2012).
Industry 4.0 and digitization
Industry 4.0 and digitization are considered to be a mega-
trend that is affecting corporations and is an important factor
that increases the demand for minerals and metals as well,
as for instance in the U.S. in 2011 there were more mobile
phones compared to the number of population. The rationale
behind this assumption is the fact that one mobile phone is
manufactured using at least 35 minerals. In parallel, invest-
ment plans of the industrial sphere are projected to reach
whopping $ 907 bn in Industry 4.0 and digitization, from
which the metals sector would invest $ 55 Billion by 2020
(PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2016-Industry 4.0 Building the
Digital Enterprise).