Industrial Metal Prices

The bellwether industrial metal, monthly since 1960. The step change after 2004 is China's industrialization absorbing a decade of supply, and the level since has never returned to the twentieth-century range.

Copper, aluminum, nickel and zinc on one axis. They share an industrial demand cycle but differ in supply structure, which is why they diverge for years at a time despite moving together through recessions.

The narrower markets. Tin is the electronics solder metal with supply concentrated in Indonesia and Myanmar, lead is dominated by recycled lead-acid batteries, and iron ore is charted on its own axis because it is quoted per dry metric ton unit rather than per tonne.