Commodities For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 16

Metals That Prove Their Mettle: Steel, Aluminum, and Copper

IN THIS CHAPTER

Mapping out a strategy to invest in steel

Evaluating opportunities in the aluminum market

Examining the ins and outs of the copper industry

Steel, aluminum, and copper may not be as glamorous as their precious metal counterparts — gold, silver, and platinum, covered in Chapter 15 — but they’re perhaps even more precious to the global economy. Gold, silver, and platinum do have industrial applications, but their primary value is derived from their ability to act as stores of value, in addition to their use in jewelry. Steel, aluminum, and copper are the most important industrial components of the metals complex, used to build everything from railcars to bridges. You may be surprised to hear that steel is the most widely used metal in the world — more than 1.95 billion tons of it were produced in 2022. Steel is closely followed by aluminum, which is closely followed by copper in terms of total global output. So steel, aluminum, and copper — in that order — rank at the top of the metals complex, based on total output.

Without these metals, which are literally the building blocks of modern societies, ...