AI to boost copper demand 50pc by 2040: S&P

Growth in the artificial intelligence and defense sectors will boost global copper demand 50 per cent by 2040, but supplies are expected to fall short by more than 10 million metric tons annually without more recycling and mining, the consultancy S&P Global said on Thursday, reports Reuters.

Copper has long-been used widely across the construction, transportation, tech and electronics industries as it is one of the best electricity-conducting metals, is corrosion-resistant and is easy to shape and form.

While the electric vehicle industry has lifted copper demand the past decade, the AI, defense and robotics industries will require even more of the metal during the next 14 years alongside traditional consumer appetite for air conditioners and other copper-hungry appliances, S&P said in its report. Demand globally will reach 42 million metric tons per year by that 2040 mark, up from 28 million metric tons in 2025, the report found. Without new sources of supply, nearly a quarter of that demand is likely to be unmet, the report found. "The underlying demand factor here is electrification of the world, and copper is the metal of electrification," Dan Yergin, S&P's vice chairman and one of the report's authors, told Reuters.