This is Bloomberg's commodities newsletter, where each month we'll be rounding up the latest news, industry research, and solutions-focused insight into trends impacting the energy, metals and agriculture markets.

How the energy transition is affecting the metals markets

Worldwide efforts to mitigate global warming‌ depend on industrial metals, ‌whether electrifying the auto fleet or transforming the power grid. That category now includes battery metals and rare-earth elements, along with metals long traded on venues such as the London Metal Exchange.

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Take copper, a market experiencing ‌tight competition for the world’s leading producer. Cooper is used in electric vehicle motors and to connect batteries, and EV engines can contain four times more copper than internal combustion engines. BloombergNEF estimates that annual demand for copper related to transport will be 10 times higher in 2040 than in 2023. Given that transportation now accounts for about 13% of total copper demand, increasing production of EVs will change the way the metal is priced and mined. Read more.

Will commodities climb or collapse in 2H?

Commodities have pulled back from the 2022 spike, and it’s a question of whether there’s recovery or enduring declines from here. Our bias is the latter. That the primary source of heat, electricity and fertilizer in the US — natural gas — dropped in 1H to levels first traded in 1990 highlights deflationary forces. Crude has similar attributes, as advancing technology pressures prices from both sides of supply and demand. The biggest-ever liquidity pump is reverting at a breakneck pace, and most central banks are still tightening in 3Q despite collapsing US producer prices, with headwind implications.

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Relying on China stimulus for commodity buoyancy may prove comparable to the disappointing post-lockdown recovery. Gold appears as a bullish outlier, particularly if US equities back up for an economic slowdown. Read more.

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Uncovering Copper Market: Key Drivers & Fundamental Outlook

Join Grant Sporre, Bloomberg Intelligence's Global Head of Metals & Mining, as he outlines the near and medium-term fundamental outlook for copper through demonstrating the features of the interactive supply-demand calculator. Uncover some of the key drivers of the market and how these could influence the finely poised balance in 2023. Watch video.

Bloomberg commodities provides access to a wide range of pricing data that delivers transparency and clarity to physical and financial commodities markets as well as proprietary research that provides perspective on industry trends. Analytics offer a detailed view of supply and demand fundamentals and pricing movements to highlight the factors that impact real-time decisions.