From Tesla cars to underwear, metal makers seek new markets
London
THE world's biggest mining companies would like you to put more zinc in your zucchini and copper in your socks and dental floss.
While builders and manufacturers remain the biggest metals users, producers are confronting the end of a Chinese industrial boom that fuelled surging global demand and prices. For more than a decade, the country dominated markets as it sucked up raw materials to build factories, homes and power lines. Now, with the industrial engine cooling, mine owners are looking for new uses to spur sales such as in fertiliser, electric-car batteries and salmon cages.
"Traditional demand isn't going to fall off a cliff," said Paul Gait, an analyst at Sanford C Bernstein in London. "B…
KEYWORDS IN THIS ARTICLE
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Energy & Commodities
California to wrap up ExxonMobil plastics probe ‘in weeks’, AG says
Gold edges higher; hovers near one-week low on tempered Middle East fears
Why has gold’s inverse relationship with the US dollar reversed?
Oil futures fall as fears of a wider Middle East war fade
Malaysia’s Sapura Energy to sell stake in SapuraOMV to TotalEnergies for US$705 million
Saudi Aramco in talks to buy 10% of China’s Hengli Petrochemical