- 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.
