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Commodities News

Up-to-date news on raw materials


FT Mercati provides subscribers with a dedicated commodities news bulletin to stay up-to-date.
Here is a selection of the latest news:

11/13/2025

COPPER DOWN LAST WEEK; GLOBAL ECONOMIC GROWTH CONCERNS

London Metal Exchange copper futures and the rest of the base metals declined during the week to Friday November 7 while prices consolidate after the previous week’s rally and amid concerns of economic growth slowing down in China, US and Europe.
COPPER lost almost 1.3% week on week to $10,724.50 per tonne after scaling record highs last week.
The metal traded within a narrow range during the week with the bullish narrative that buoyed last week’s rally seemingly softening amid concerns of economic growth slowing in China and the US.
“It has been the macro letting some air out of the tires which has really weighed on copper this week,” Marex analyst Alastair Munro said. “Or at the very least the current uncertainty perhaps renders discretionary risk appetite more muted until we get the December [US] Fed rates decision out of the way.”
A less rosy economic growth picture was amplified last week after China’s GDP slowed to 4.8% in the third quarter, while its manufacturing index declined to 49 in October from 49.9 the preceding month.
“Despite booming equity market indices, US growth appears to be slowing and there is very little growth in Europe,” Fastmarkets analyst William Adams said.
Copper may be facing “conflicting signals” marked by tight underlying supply but insufficient fundamental demand support, after pulling back from the record high, according to Sucden Financial analysts Daria Efanova and Viktoria Kuszak.

11/13/2025

Energy is raw material - IEA (2)

It is no coincidence that the International Energy Agency is issuing a warning about the ever-increasing threats to energy security and the growing risks on an unprecedented range of fuels and technologies. All of which bring energy to the centre of geopolitical tensions.
In all scenarios, the growing need for energy services in the coming decades is evident, with demand rising for mobility, heating, cooling, lighting and other domestic and industrial uses, and increasingly for services related to data and artificial intelligence.
Although the pace varies between scenarios, in all of them renewables are growing faster than any other major energy source, led by solar photovoltaics. It is expected that more projects will be implemented worldwide in the next five years than in the last 40 years. An increase that 'could satisfy almost all of the world's growing appetite for electricity'.
But demand for electricity is growing much faster than overall energy consumption. It rises by about 40 per cent to 2035 in the CPS and STEPS scenarios and by more than 50 per cent in the NZE scenario.
Spending on electricity supply and end-use electrification already accounts for half of current global energy investments. Today, electricity accounts for about 20% of global final energy consumption, but it is the main source of energy for most households and for sectors accounting for more than 40% of the global economy. But in contrast to the last decade, 'the increase in electricity consumption is no longer limited to emerging and developing economies'. The staggering growth in demand from data centres and artificial intelligence is also contributing to increased electricity consumption in advanced economies: global investment in data centres will reach $580 billion by 2025, more than the $540 billion spent on global oil supply. A crucial issue for energy security in the electricity age, however, is the speed at which new grids, storage and other sources of flexibility in the electricity system can be built. Investment in power generation has increased by almost 70 per cent since 2015, but annual spending on grids has grown at less than half this rate.

11/13/2025

Energy is raw material - IEA (1)

The International Energy Agency (IEA) presents the 2025 edition of the World energy outlook (WEB), the most authoritative global source of energy analysis and projections.
This projection is in addition to the Stated Policy Scenario (STEPS), which also considers the implementation of policies that have been presented but not yet adopted, and the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (NZE) scenario, which takes a different approach, describing a pathway to reduce emissions.
None of the three scenarios, the authors point out, is a forecast. In all three, however, even the one in which global climate action comes to a halt (CPS), renewables are growing faster than any other major energy source, led by a surge in low-cost solar power in several regions, including the Middle East and Asia, making the transition away from fossil fuels 'inevitable', a commitment made at the 2023 Dubai COP, but one that many countries today would like to forget.

In the CPS scenario, therefore, demand for oil and natural gas continues to grow until 2050, even if the decline of coal begins before the end of this decade. In the STEPS scenario, on the other hand, coal use peaks earlier and oil demand flattens out by the end of the decade, while natural gas demand - contrary to last year's report - continues to grow over the next decade, mainly due to changes in US policies and lower gas prices. But it will still only increase by 10% from current levels.
Finally, in the NZE scenario, a much faster implementation of a range of low-emission technologies leads to declines in demand for all fossil fuels.

11/13/2025

BASKET OPEC PRELIMINARY PRICE

OPECNA, the news agency of OPEC, announced the OPEC Basket preliminary price
12 november = $ 65.12 /b (up from previous daily value)
(The OPEC Reference Basket (ORB) introduced on 16 June 2005, is currently made up of the following: Algeria, Angola, Congo, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia , UAE and Venezuela.

11/13/2025

STOCK AND VOLUMES in october 2025 – LME

According to last report of LME (London Metal Exchange) the warehouse movements for zinc in october were (in tonnes) :
STOCK IN 6,850
STOCK OUT 13,525
CLOSING 33,825
Furthermore the lead volumes year to date (10 months) were:
LOTS 24,570,270 (= 614,256,750 tonn)

11/13/2025

STOCK AND VOLUMES in october 2025 – LME

According to last report of LME (London Metal Exchange) the warehouse movements for tin in october were (in tonnes) :
STOCK IN 915
STOCK OUT 715
CLOSING 2,850
Furthermore the lead volumes year to date (10 months) were:
LOTS 1,568,194 (= 7,840,970 tonn)