Prior to China’s rise around the year 2000, global demand for most commodities was largely stable for decades. However, economic reforms and China’s investment-focused growth saw rapid demand growth for commodities like iron ore and copper. Prices also rose materially during the 2000s and 2010s and generally remain elevated.
Major miners such as BHP, Rio Tinto, Vale, and Anglo American dramatically increased supply, leading to a downturn in the mid-2010s as supply caught up and demand from China cyclically weakened. More recently, as supply chains have adjusted to interruptions from covid-19 and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, commodity prices have generally fallen but are elevated versus their 10-year average. This is incentivizing the miners to tilt toward growth through new developments, expansions, and mergers and acquisitions.