The Gulf has always been known, rightly, for producing a big fraction of the world’s crude oil.
But what seems to often go under the radar is how much they produce of the world’s most used metal. Combined, the GCC states and Iran make up almost 10% of global production, and slightly less than 25% of non-Chinese production. Aluminium has major uses in construction, aerospace, and car manufacturing, among other things. Given the massive energy required to turn mined alumina and bauxite into aluminium, there’s a strong tendency for it to be produced by countries with low energy costs like Norway or Saudi Arabia.
I’ve removed Chinese production from this graphic, because although China produces a whopping 60% of the world’s aluminium, none of it ever leaves China. China’s vast manufacturing sector uses essentially all the aluminium that is produced in the country, and any aluminium that’s shipped out of China is as finished goods.
That means that all the other big industrial economies like South Korea, Japan, the United States and Europe, depend on Gulf smelters. One of the knock-on effects of the Iran war has been the steep rise in the metal’s price on the global market because of a significant drop in Gulf production2, and it remains to be seen when and if that production is going to come back.