Glencore CEO, Ivan Glasenberg, says electric cars are here to stay and will help drive copper demand.
Mr Glasenburg-speaking at a recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch presentation in Barcelona-said around 30% of the world’s vehicles being produced by 2030 would be electric.
The modelling was based on a study it commissioned from CRU across the EV supply chain, including infrastructure and charging, and the impact that would have on various commodities.
“So, if you envisage, by the year 2030, the world will be producing around about 107 million to 110 million vehicles, 31.7 million of these will be electric vehicles and if you look at the year 2020 to just look at figures will be around about 2.1 million electric vehicles produce per year,” Mr Glasenberg said in media reports.
“Utilising the CRU study, in 2030, to give you an idea of base, these 31.7 million electric vehicles, we will require around about 4.1 million tonnes of copper.”
That equates to around 18% of 2016 global copper supply, with the red metal required for generation and grid infrastructure, grid storage, charging infrastructure and EVs.
“So, the world will need a large amount of copper just for electric vehicles and that is ignoring other growth in demand of copper and whatever you believe growth will go in other areas around the world,” Glasenberg said.
Between now and 2020, Glencore plans to grow copper production by at least 25%, cobalt production by at least 133%, and nickel production by 23%.
“And the world is going to need high metal prices going forward to incentivise the next generation of new mine projects and projects to be built as fast as possible to feed into this large demand which we believe is sitting around the corner.”
More detail: http://www.miningnews.net/energy-minerals-investor-hub/energy-minerals-investor-hub-events/ev-revolution-is-upon-us-glasenberg/