Commodities Weekly Copper hits all time high but we expect prices to ease lower The rally in copper prices to an all-time high has its roots in rising supply concerns, particularly following the announcement by a group of Chinese smelters that they intend to cut output by 10% in... 5th December 2025 · 4 mins read
Commodities Chart Pack Commodities Chart Pack (Dec. 2025) Copper’s supply crunch masks weakening demand The rally in copper, which has driven prices to all-time nominal highs, has its roots in supply concerns, which are likely to persist into 2026. But we... 5th December 2025 · 1 min read
Commodities Update New Simandou supply will sink iron ore prices Against the backdrop of weakening demand, the ramp-up in iron ore supply from the Simandou mine in Guinea is a key driver of our below-consensus view that iron ore prices will fall sharply over the... 2nd December 2025 · 4 mins read
Commodities Update 5 key questions about AI and demand for commodities This Update examines five key questions about AI-related demand for commodities, and the economic consequences of potential future disruptions to their supply. 19th November 2025 · 4 mins read
Latin America Economics Focus Can Brazil become a major rare earths player? Brazil has the second largest rare earth deposits on the planet but negligible production. Interest in rare earth mining in Brazil has surged in the past couple of years, although it will take time... 10th November 2025 · 14 mins read
Commodities Chart Pack Commodities Chart Pack (Nov. 2025) Plenty of oil on water; revising down our gold forecast While the fallout from US sanctions on Russian oil majors has yet to manifest in the data, Russian seaborne oil exports are strong, and a wider... 5th November 2025 · 1 min read
Commodities Weekly A false dawn for copper? Soybeans deal not a gamechanger The positive mood music surrounding cooling US-China trade tensions has supported a handful of commodity prices, including copper and soybeans. Although copper prices reached an all-time high this... 31st October 2025 · 3 mins read
Commodities Update Commodities & the tariff shock six months on Six months on from the unveiling of President Trump’s tariff agenda, the direct effects on commodity markets have been contained to higher US price premiums for steel and aluminium. That said... 22nd October 2025 · 4 mins read
Commodities Chart Pack Commodities Chart Pack (Oct. 2025) OPEC+ undershoots, copper goes for gold OPEC+’s decision to raise its output quota by 137,000 bpd in November confounded reports of a larger rise in the run-up to the decision and provided short-lived... 8th October 2025 · 1 min read
Commodities Weekly A pivotal OPEC+ meeting?; soybeans as bargaining chips Speculation has mounted that OPEC+ is considering a super-sized increase to output quotas at this weekend’s meeting, which has weighed heavily on oil prices. Irrespective of whether OPEC+ opts for an... 3rd October 2025 · 4 mins read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly China’s iron ore extortion won’t succeed China’s strong reliance on Australian iron ore means that its recent ban of imports from one of Australia’s mining giants will at best result in minor concessions. The bigger picture though is that... 3rd October 2025 · 4 mins read
Commodities Weekly Supply uncertainties re-emerge as key driver of prices For all the recent focus on soft demand dynamics, developments on the supply side have been the main driver of oil prices this week. Heightened uncertainty is driving pessimism among US oil producers... 26th September 2025 · 4 mins read
Commodities Outlook Gold prices to buck the downbeat trend The most acute geopolitical and tariff-related distortion in commodity markets has eased, leaving fundamentals more firmly in the driver’s seat going forward. While the Russia-Ukraine war still... 24th September 2025 · 23 mins read
Commodities Weekly Fed rate cuts won’t be a major influence on commodity prices From a commodity market perspective, the fact that the US Fed is now cutting rates again would usually, all else equal, be expected to boost prices. However, weak market fundamentals and the extent of... 19th September 2025 · 4 mins read
Africa Economics Weekly Africa Weekly: Zambia IMF money, Lower West African cocoa harvests Zambia secured another disbursement from the IMF this week and, given severe fiscal strains, it seems most likely that policymakers will seek a successor programme when the current one ends in October... 8th August 2025 · 5 mins read
Commodities Chart Pack Commodities Chart Pack (Aug. 2025) Oil market remains unfazed by geopolitics for now Despite President Trump’s threat to enforce 100% secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian energy, which could effectively choke off up to 5% of global... 5th August 2025 · 1 min read