Issue 76 / September 2021 pressure to keep rates low given high levels of government debt . Markham adds : “ We are seeing inflationary data increase and commodities have traditionally been a core way for investors to both protect themselves from this but also benefit from such trends .”
Jumpstart Ebrahim adds that copper will also be a major beneficiary of the move towards electric vehicles ( EVs ). “ EVs contain up to 10x more copper than internal combustion engine vehicles and each electric bus contains approximately 370kg of copper ,” he says . “ The US yellow school-bus fleet size is approximately 480,000 and if 20 % of the fleet is replaced by electric buses , an additional 35k tonnes of copper will be needed .” However , this is where Lequime sounds a note of caution . He points out that while demand for copper from the renewable energy sector is likely to increase from its current level of 7 % of the total figure to about 17 % by 2030 , it will still be far from the dominant consumer of the metal .
In numbers : The $ 2trn US infrastructure plan
The key elements of the physical infrastructure plan will involve :
• Modernising 20,000 miles of roads , fixing the 10 most economically significant bridges and repairing the worst 10,000 small bridges
• Replacing or repairing 24,000 buses , 5,000 rail cars , 200 stations and thousands of miles of track , signals and power systems
• Developing and rolling out EVs and the corresponding charging network , including building 500,000 EV chargers by 2040 , replacing 50,000 diesel transit vehicles and electrifying at least 20 % of the yellow school-bus fleet
• Replacing all lead pipes and service lines
• Rolling out affordable and reliable highspeed broadband across the country
“ The approval of Biden ’ s infrastructure plan is good news for those investing in metals , with copper and nickel required in huge quantities as power systems and vehicle fleets are upgraded and electrified ,” says Ebrahim .
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