Big spending on infrastructure in China, especially, ought to support suppliers of
industrial metals such as copper. Indeed, the strength of China’s economic recovery will
be pivotal for many miners. Producers will also pray the Sino-American trade conflict
does not harm carmakers, a source of demand bolstered by growing need for electric-
vehicle batteries. Meanwhile, strikes at copper mines in Latin America and Indonesia
will restrain output. Prices will increase by about 5% in 2021. Protectionism is a
menace to other industrial metals, too. Take aluminium: America’s import tariffs will
divert supplies away from its shores; crimped output will keep prices high there.
Aluminium prices, bashed out of shape in 2019-20, will climb by more than 4% in 2021.
Among precious metals, gold, perhaps unsurprisingly, has shone brightly in these
uncertain times: average prices were 27% higher in 2020. But as economies recover,
consumption will fall by 7% and prices will be flat in 2021.