The conflict in the Middle East is disrupting the production of many critical raw materials: aluminum, but also copper, tin and sulfuric acid.
( CN-STR / – )
Rising energy prices, disrupted production… The supply of aluminum will be difficult in the months to come, warned Tuesday June 2 Yves Jégourel, metals specialist who co-directed the CyclOpe report on raw materials, which points to the war on Middle East as the main brake on global production.
“We are in a very complicated configuration where we are rediscovering that we are going to have a problem with aluminum”, a metal classified by NATO as being
“at extremely high supply risk”
recalled the professor at the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts during the presentation to the press of the 40th edition of the annual report.
The metal is both light and strong, including
China remained by far the main producer in 2025
with more than 60% of the approximately 74 million tonnes produced worldwide, is essential, particularly in the defense industry and aeronautics. However, the war in the Middle East has disrupted production activity in this region, which is the leading producer outside China, with between 8 and 9% of world production, according to the International Aluminum Institute.
It has also caused energy prices to rise, while aluminum production is very energy-intensive.
The market is already “very tense” and stocks are “weakening considerably”, explained Yves Jégourel on Tuesday.
Copper, tin, sulfuric acid…
More broadly, the experts who prepare the CyclOpe report each year believe that 2025 was “the year of metals”, observing strong variations in the copper market, key to conducting electricity.
Yves Jégourel also emphasized that
“very strong tensions” on the tin market
“strategic for the world of tomorrow” because of its role in welding. The rise in the price of this metal is explained by the “uncertain” nature of the supply in the main exporting countries, Indonesia, Burma and DR Congo, and by purchasing speculation mechanisms, “especially in China”, which remains the world’s leading producer.
Another point of vigilance is sulfuric acid, whose prices have soared because a quarter of world production comes from the Middle East. It is essential for phosphate fertilizers, but is also widely used by the mining industry.
It is in fact used for the leaching of copper or nickel, a chemical process allowing the ore to be transformed into metals.
“Acid was 23% of the direct cost on a ton of refined nickel, today we are at 43%,” explains Yves Jégourel.
