The Circular Industries Talks are organized every second Wednesday at the Circular Industries Hub. In this edition, dr. Wouter Jacobs, Executive and Academic Director at Erasmus Commodity & Trade Centre, talks about security of supply and strategic stockpiling of critical raw materials. Curious for more? Take a look at the recording at the bottom of this page.
We’re public officials, not commodity traders. We have to understand how the markets really work and involve experts. It’s all complicated by the fact that at the moment, certain commodity prices are crashing through the floor. You can say there’s no better time to buy stuff than when it’s dirt cheap. But what do you buy? At what price? Where are you going to store it? How are you going to insure it? Who’s going to bear the risk?”
– Peter Handley, Head of Unit, Energy Intensive Industries and Raw Materials, European Commission, speaking on the importance of the commodity trading perspective in the development of EU regulation on CRMs, January 2024 (source).
In this talk by dr Wouter Jacobs, he explains the role of commodity traders in the supply chains of critical raw materials. In view of Europe’s strategic autonomy, strategic stockpiling is one of the instruments that is currently addressed, but a lot of uncertainty remains.
Take-aways:
- Commodity traders are key agents in the security of supply.
- Currently, there is no European-wide strategic stockpiling initiative.
- Geopolitical competition further necessitates a strategic European approach.
Curious about the whole story? Listen to Wouter in the Circular Industries talks.
The Circular Industries talks
The goal of the Circular Industries talks is to share knowledge across Leiden, Delft and Erasmus and to complement and deepen the knowledge already available within the Circular Industries Hub. The talks are organized on Wednesday morning from 10:00 to 11:00. The talks are online (Microsoft Teams).