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Horizons Live: High-wire act
Is soaring copper demand an obstacle to future growth?
1 minute read
This month’s Horizons explores the growing tension between surging copper demand and constrained supply and what this means for the global economy, electrification and the energy transition.
Copper is the backbone of modern industry, powering everything from renewable energy and EVs to AI data centres and defence systems. But as demand accelerates, the question is whether supply can keep pace. Wood Mackenzie’s latest analysis reveals that the copper market is facing an unprecedented supply challenge - one that could reshape investment, geopolitics, and industrial growth in the decade ahead.
In our Horizons Live session our experts discussed how the world can balance the competing forces of electrification, digitalisation and resource constraints.
Key themes included:
- Demand disruptors: how AI, EVs, defence and industrialisation are fuelling a surge in copper demand.
- Supply shortfall: why investment delays, ESG pressures and financing hurdles are creating an 8 Mtpa gap.
- East vs West: how China’s state-backed miners are advancing while Western firms retreat from high-risk regions.
- Strategic response: new investment models and partnerships that could secure long-term supply.
Watch the live replay below, where our expert panel broke down the findings from Horizons: High-wire act and shared insights on what it will take to keep pace with copper’s critical role in the global transition.
The panel:
- Julian Kettle, Vice Chairman of Metals and Mining
- Natalie Biggs, Global Head, Base Metals Markets
- Peter Schmitz, Director, Global Copper Markets Research
- Charles Cooper, Research Director, Head of Copper Research
Watch the Live replay below now.
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