We are in the middle of a revolution in the infrastructure of modernity.
The plumbing of the 20th-century economy – the fossil fuel infrastructure that is in everything we do – is being ripped up. New, clean energy networks are being laid down. It is the most remarkable transformation in the economic substructure in history.
And yet…for all the celebration of the transformation in demand around climate solutions, infrastructure is fundamentally a supply-side puzzle. And that means commodities.
Even as we shake free ...
We are in the middle of a revolution in the infrastructure of modernity.
The plumbing of the 20th-century economy – the fossil fuel infrastructure that is in everything we do – is being ripped up. New, clean energy networks are being laid down. It is the most remarkable transformation in the economic substructure in history.
And yet…for all the celebration of the transformation in demand around climate solutions, infrastructure is fundamentally a supply-side puzzle. And that means commodities.
Even as we shake free from the shackles of oil, our net-zero future becomes shackled to other critical minerals instead. Copper. Lithium. Cobalt.
Time to ride another supply-side supercycle. But is the world ready? Can we mine what we need both quickly and sustainably?
This episode’s guest is the perfect person to ask. Abel Martins Alexandre spent a career in commodity financing, as VP at Natixis, Group Treasurer at Rio Tinto, and now MD and Head of Infrastructure, Energy and Industrials at Lloyds Bank.
An expert both in the mining space and ESG finance – including a stint on the Financial Markets Standards Board – Abel has a sharp insider’s eye on these under-discussed markets. His view is not to be missed!
"… for the discussions around chips and the scarcity of chips, which is which is true, there's a broader conversation about the scarcity of metals, which I think is going to hit all of us, I suppose more in a more meaningful way in the next the next couple of years… "
"Well, the best advice I can give… I’m borrowing from many others, many great people I've met in my career, … as the motto says, if we fail to prepare, we are preparing to fail. And that's very, very important … Always to know, to prepare well, to have a plan and to be resilient around a plan, which is to adapt very, very quickly."
"… because the risk to physical infrastructure is real, because supply chain disruptions are happening and also because actually even in the context of higher inflation, which many people have not witnessed in their in their careers, you need to think about what it means for the business …"
REFERENCES:
https://www.lloydsbank.com/business/corporate-banking/banking-with-us/our-people/specialist-heads/abel-martins-alexandre.html
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abel-martins-alexandre/?originalSubdomain=uk
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