Recycling matters – the role of secondary production in metal markets

  • In an effort to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, recycling has been recognized as one key strategy. With technological advancements further enabling more efficient material recovery, recycling is set to emerge as an influential force in global metal markets, reshaping traditional supply-demand dynamics. To better understand the role of secondary production and its interdependencies within these markets, we employ structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) models to simultaneously analyze the relationships between primary and secondary supply, demand, convenience yield, and futures prices from 2010 to 2023. The analysis highlights the critical role of recycling in the aluminum and lead markets, significantly influencing prices, consumption and, convenience yield, helping to mitigate scarcity and lower commodity prices. In contrast, the dynamics of the copper market are dominated by primary producers, reflecting their larger share of total production volume. WhileIn an effort to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, recycling has been recognized as one key strategy. With technological advancements further enabling more efficient material recovery, recycling is set to emerge as an influential force in global metal markets, reshaping traditional supply-demand dynamics. To better understand the role of secondary production and its interdependencies within these markets, we employ structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) models to simultaneously analyze the relationships between primary and secondary supply, demand, convenience yield, and futures prices from 2010 to 2023. The analysis highlights the critical role of recycling in the aluminum and lead markets, significantly influencing prices, consumption and, convenience yield, helping to mitigate scarcity and lower commodity prices. In contrast, the dynamics of the copper market are dominated by primary producers, reflecting their larger share of total production volume. While primary producers struggle to adapt to market changes quickly, our findings show that secondary production is highly responsive, particularly to fluctuations in futures prices. This responsiveness highlights the ability of recyclers to increase production volumes when market conditions become more profitable. Our findings underscore the contribution of recycling to an efficient market and emphasize its importance in a sustainable and circular metal industry.show moreshow less

Download full text files

Export metadata

Statistics

Number of document requests

Additional Services

Share in Twitter Search Google Scholar
Metadaten
Author:Michael Straub-MückORCiDGND, Amelie SchischkeORCiDGND, Andreas W. RathgeberGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:384-opus4-1291230
Frontdoor URLhttps://opus.bibliothek.uni-augsburg.de/opus4/129123
ISSN:0921-8009OPAC
Parent Title (English):Ecological Economics
Publisher:Elsevier BV
Place of publication:Amsterdam
Type:Article
Language:English
Year of first Publication:2026
Publishing Institution:Universität Augsburg
Release Date:2026/03/19
Volume:245
First Page:108983
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2026.108983
Institutes:Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlich-Technische Fakultät
Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlich-Technische Fakultät / Institut für Materials Resource Management
Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlich-Technische Fakultät / Institut für Materials Resource Management / Professur für Applied Data Analysis
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 50 Naturwissenschaften / 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik
Licence (German):CC-BY 4.0: Creative Commons: Namensnennung