MetaMiner’s Stuart Burns talks metal prices, supercycles and more on BNN Bloomberg

It’s been a busy month for MetalMiner experts talking metal prices, volatility and much more over the airwaves.

• Base metal prices and volatility
• The impact of a decline in Chinese demand
• The Russia-Ukraine war’s impact on aluminum prices

For further analysis of the Russia-Ukraine war’s impact on commodities and much more, the MetalMiner team is hosting a webinar session on the issue today at 11:00 a.m. Central Time.
If you haven’t already, there’s still time to register for the 30-minute webinar session. 

Metal prices, volatility and commodity ‘supercycles’

MetalMiner has delved into the commodity supercycle dialogue before. As of now, the MetalMiner team remains skeptical about the idea of a commodity supercycle based on the current landscape.
“There are some, like Goldman Sachs, that are pushing the supercycle story,” Burns said on BNN Bloomberg this week. “We’re a little contrarian to that. We do see inflationary issues around base metal prices — EVs, renewables and so on.”
However, some factors are also working in the other direction.
“We see issues around the Fed’s reaction to inflation. We see reasonable levels of material supply in the market going forward that we don’t believe that we’re into a supercycle as such.”
With that said, Burns said markets are in a period of volatility and high prices in the short to medium term.
The MetalMiner team will also address trends in metal prices, volatility and the many factors driving prices in the upcoming Monthly Metal Outlook report (available to subscribers on the first weekday of each month). 

Supply issues persist

Inventory levels have plunged on the exchanges, Burns noted. However, that comes on the back of a year of “global logistics chaos.”
Furthermore, a robust bounceback from the COVID-19 pandemic has also boosted demand around the world.
“Those two dynamics have drawn down inventory levels around the world and have created the inflationary environment that we’re seeing in base metals at the moment,” Burns explained.
However, Burns said he does see those issues working their way through the global economy.
“They’re not something that’s going to be there 5-10 years from now,” he added. “They’re contributing to inflationary prices for the next 12 months, possibly 18, but not a long-term supercycle.”
The above is a brief snippet of the insights Burns shared this week. You can find the full video of his BNN Bloomberg interview below.