Copper

• Annual production is ~23 million tonnes. (Aluminium is 69 million tonnes, relatively comparable. Gold is ~3300 tonnes around the world annually. Silver is 25k tonnes annually. Steel is 1.9 billion tonnes - Iron being the largest by magnitude difference)
• Coal and Oil are still the largest volume wise (even compared to iron). Coal and Oil are directly consumed while other metals grow with infrastructure, construction and industries.
• To date 700 million tonnes of copper has been produced in the world. It is estimated known reserves of 2.1 billion tonnes
• The value of the market is ~USD 9.26 billion per 2024. (Sept '25 prices - USD10,232 per ton) Close to $230 billion
• Third largest in total value after Iron Ore, Gold. (See comparison with oil chart below)
• Future demand to be continued to be driven by Construction, power infrastructure, Capital Goods, Transport (high growth), Consumer/other.
• Largest country - Chile
• Largest company - BHP with production of 2 million tonnes. 
• Largest importer - China (~59 billion) followed by Japan (11.7 billion), EU, South Korea
• Circular. Recycled as well.
• 
  

Music Industry

• Total size ~USD 29.6 billion (2024). A decade of growth after two decades of gradual decline.
• Streaming was $20.4 billion, the biggest revenue driver.
• 2014 was one of the lowest years recently. Since then streaming has changed the revenue profile and size of the industry.
• In 2014, it was a 20 year low of $12.8 billion
• At the peak of CD era (end 90s), physical music accounted for $22 billion of revenue
• The industry is as big. Where earlier the revenue came from physical sales, now the revenue is derived from streaming.
• Around 752 million people pay for a streaming service
• The largest players are Universal, followed by Sony and Warner. Independent artists and label make 31.4% of the total revenue.
• The streaming services are provided by Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal...
• It seems The amount of money music industry has made from CDs over time is yet to be replicated by any other medium
  
• Over the last decades, analysts have estimated that CDs brought in around US$ 367 billion in cumulative revenue (in U.S. only) across their lifetime.
• Perhaps streaming will, over its lifetime...

"As our chart nicely illustrates, the transition to digital distribution has both fueled the music industry’s decline and helped stop it. After the golden age of the CD, which propelled worldwide music revenues to unprecedented highs through the 1990s, the advent of MP3 and filesharing hit the music industry like an earthquake. Between 2001 and 2010, physical music sales declined by more than 60 percent, wiping out $13 billion in annual revenue. During the same period, digital music sales grew from zero to $4 billion, which wasn’t even remotely enough to offset the drop in CD sales. It wasn’t until the appearance and widespread adoption of music streaming services that the music industry’s fortunes began turning around again."

Other notes:

•  UMG amassed USD $12.88 billion in total revenues, with annual adjusted EBITDA soaring to USD $2.88 billion.(2024). As of September 2025 Universal Music Group has a market cap of $52.41 Billion USD. 

• In 2024, catalog sales (defined as music older than three years) accounted for 66% of UMG’s recorded music digital and physical revenue (aka: money from record sales and streaming). Meanwhile, frontline releases (music less than three years old) accounted for 34%

• .. UMG’s music publishing catalog now contains 5 million owned and administered titles – around a million more than two years ago

• 4. UMG’s top 50 artists accounted for just 24% of its recorded music revenue in 2024

Contract shape - A revenue-share licensing contract, with advances, minimum guarantees, and negotiated perks, where streaming services keep ~30–35% of revenue, labels/publishers take the rest, and artists are paid indirectly through their label or distributor deals.

• Instead of going fully into consumer streaming, majors:

  • License broadly (Spotify, Apple, Amazon, YouTube).

  • Take equity stakes in platforms (e.g., Universal, Sony, Warner all took stakes in Spotify early on).

  • Experiment at the edges with curated platforms: Vevo, boutique artist apps, or specialized services (e.g., high-fidelity streaming like Tidal).

  • Explore direct-to-fan tools (e.g., Universal investing in Web3/NFT or artist-subscription platforms).

This way, they get upside from streaming growth while avoiding direct antitrust confrontation or network-effect disadvantages.

Shipping

Some charts to first understand the lay of the land:

Maritime trade volumes reached 12,292 million tons in 2023, an increase of 2.4 per cent, after contracting in 2022. Global maritime trade outperformed expectations in 2023 due to easing pressures on the global economy and better-than-expected economic performance in large economies.

"According to data published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), globalization has caused a steep increase in maritime trade over the past few decades, with the total volume growing from 4,000 million tons loaded in 1990 to more than 11,000 million tons loaded in 2019. Container shipping in particular has boomed over the past three decades, with total shipping volume growing nearly eightfold since 1990."

The global container shipping industry powers over 80% of international trade.

as over 80% of world trade volume is carried by sea.

• 1960s. Introduction of specialized bulk carriers
• 1970s. Globalization and Oil Shock
• 1980s. Significant fleet expansion leading to overcapacity. Rise of the Baltic Exchange.
• 1990s: Global Trade Liberalization
• 2000s: China-Led Supercycle
• 2008. Baltic Dry Index peak in May (11,793 points) followed by global financial crisis crash
• 2016. Baltic Dry Index historic low (290 points)
• 2020. COVID-19 pandemic temporarily disrupts global Dry Bulk shipping patterns
• 2023. Implementation of IMO 2023 carbon intensity regulations
• 2024. Red Sea crisis affecting major trading routes on top of ongoing Panama Canal drought
• 2025. Projected timeline for mainstream adoption of alternative fuels

Containers are a small part of global total fleet but one of the fastest growing part. And why it is relevant because value wise - it is one of the high value trade. (following 2020 chart) - as most of the dry bulk are raw materials, while containerized products are final finished products. And the way consumer economy has grown in last 30-40 years is best reflected by container growth.

Roughly 70%+ of Turkey’s steel comes from Electric Arc Furnaces (EAFs), which melt down scrap steel.Countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Germany rely heavily on Blast Furnaces (BF) + Basic Oxygen Furnaces (BOF), which process iron ore and coke.

Following as of 2022: Container shipping companies. (total 6408 active ships)

As of 2025: Market share too

Here are the Top 10 Shipping Lines in the World (2025) by TEU capacity:

🚢 1. MSC – 6.4 million TEUs | 20.2% Market Share | 🇨🇭 Switzerland
🚢 2. Maersk – 4.5 million TEUs | 14.3% | 🇩🇰 Denmark
🚢 3. CMA CGM – 3.87 million TEUs | 12.7% | 🇫🇷 France
🚢 4. COSCO – 3.35 million TEUs | 10.6% | 🇨🇳 China
🚢 5. Hapag-Lloyd – 2.35 million TEUs | 7.4% | 🇩🇪 Germany
🚢 6. ONE – 1.98 million TEUs | 6.2% | 🇯🇵 Japan
🚢 7. Evergreen – 1.79 million TEUs | 5.7% | 🇹🇼 Taiwan
🚢 8. HMM – 913K TEUs | 2.9% | 🇰🇷 South Korea
🚢 9. ZIM – 781K TEUs | 2.5% | 🇮🇱 Israel
🚢 10. Yang Ming – 711K TEUs | 2.2% | 🇹🇼 Taiwan

 China remains at the top of the list with 269 million TEUs, with no other place even coming close to these volumes.  The country's maritime trade dominance is owed largely to its thriving business of exporting electronics, fashion and other consumer goods. For example, the People's Republic exported ICT goods like computers, electronic components and consumer electronics worth $858 billion in current prices in 2021, more than double the amount of the second-ranked region Hong Kong with $410 billion, according to UNCTAD data.

https://unctad.org/publication/review-maritime-transport-2024

Ocean Economy/ Maritime - including trade

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Baltic Dry Index

Baltic Dry Index (BDI): A composite of shipping costs across major routes; often seen as a real-time indicator of global economic health.

The Baltic Exchange is a London-based marketplace and information provider that sits at the heart of global shipping. Think of it as the shipping world’s equivalent of a stock exchange 📈🚢—but instead of trading equities, it facilitates the buying and selling of shipping contracts and provides trusted benchmarks for freight rates. operates as part of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) (since 2016).

Traditionally, Capesize vessels between 120K MT and 220K MT of deadweight carried the most Dry Bulk in 2023, with their combined shipments totalling just over 1.5bn MT 

 How It’s Calculated

1. Daily Market Assessments
   Shipbrokers around the world submit price estimates for chartering different classes of bulk carriers (ships that carry dry cargo like coal, iron ore, or grain).

2. Four Vessel Types
   The BDI is a composite index built from rates across four classes of dry bulk ships:

   • Capesize (≈180,000 deadweight tons, usually iron ore/coal, can’t pass through Panama Canal)

   • Panamax (≈65,000–80,000 DWT, sized for the Panama Canal, often grain/coal)

   • Supramax (≈50,000–60,000 DWT, versatile for ports with smaller facilities)

   • Handysize (≈28,000–40,000 DWT, smaller, flexible routes like regional grain trade)

3. Weighting
   Each ship type gets a weight in the index according to its share of global trade.

4. Final Index
   The Baltic Exchange blends these rates into a single number: the BDI. Published daily.

 Why It Moves So Wildly

• No Speculation: Unlike oil or stocks, the BDI is based on real contracts—supply and demand for ships.

• Low Elasticity: Ship supply can’t quickly adjust (it takes ~2 years to build a new vessel). A small change in demand (say, China buying less iron ore) can swing prices a lot.

• Seasonality: Grain harvests, monsoons, or ice seasons shift demand.

• Global Trade Cycles: It rises in boom times (lots of building and steel demand), crashes in slowdowns.

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🌍 Why It Matters Beyond Shipping

• Economic Indicator: Traders watch it as a leading signal of global industrial activity. If the BDI falls sharply, it often hints at cooling demand for raw materials.

• Volatile Pulse: In 2008, at the peak of the commodities boom, the BDI hit over 11,000. By the financial crisis, it collapsed by more than 90% in just a few months.

• Investment Use: Some hedge funds and economists treat it like an early-warning radar for global slowdowns or recoveries.

Capesize vs. Panamax Dynamics: Different ship classes reveal nuances—e.g., Panamax routes reflect agricultural exports; Capesize often signal iron/steel trades.

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI), the industry's primary rate benchmark, has witnessed extreme fluctuations:

• Pre-2008 Boom. Rates reached unprecedented highs driven by Chinese demand growth
• 2008-2016 Bust. Oversupply and reduced demand growth led to prolonged depression in rates
• 2016-2019 Recovery. Gradual improvement as fleet growth moderated
• 2020 Pandemic Impact. Initial sharp decline followed by surprising strength as stimulus measures boosted commodity demand
• 2021-2023. Sustained strength in rates due to supply chain disruptions and strong commodity demand

Dry Bulk:

Asia-Pacific (37% of global market share)

The region dominates the Dry Bulk shipping industry, contributing over 37% of the revenue share in 2023. This dominance is attributed to robust economic expansion, industrial activities, and the strategic location of major ports.

• China: The world's largest importer of Iron Ore and a major Coal importer. In 2024, it accounted for over 74% of global seaborne iron ore imports by volume and more than 31% of seaborne coal shipments. China's owned fleet has surpassed Greece's in gross tonnage. Chinese state-owned COSCO Group operates one of the largest Dry Bulk fleets globally, with over 340 vessels.
• Japan: Home to “K” Line, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), and Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK Line), which collectively control a significant portion of the global Dry Bulk fleet.
• India: Rapidly growing market with expanding steel production and energy needs, increasing dry bulk import requirements by an average of 3.8% annually since 2018.

Europe (22% of global market share)

• Greece: Despite being surpassed by China in total tonnage, Greek shipowners like Star Bulk Carriers and Diana Shipping remain influential players in the dry bulk sector.
• Norway: Specializes in advanced maritime technology and environmentally efficient vessels.

North America

The region plays a substantial role, driven by robust agricultural exports and imports of industrial materials. The United States, one of the largest grain exporters, relies heavily on dry bulk vessels to transport its agricultural products to international markets. In 2024, it holds a 21% share of the grain export market.

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• 80% of trade
• Rise of containers
• Value of containers
• The mix of dry bulk - trade patterns of the world
• Baltic Dry Index
• 
  

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Other relevant interesting :