Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Copper and Electric motors and drives

Motors are one of copper's biggest uses, because their stator windings, and in some designs the rotor, are copper; tighter efficiency classes such as IE3 cut resistive losses largely by adding active material, so efficiency rules raise copper use per motor.

Copper (commodity) and Electric motors and drives (energy): 3 relationships.

How they are linked

1. Windings and rotors

Physical flow · Strong · Copper → Electric motors and drives

A motor makes its magnetic field by passing current through coils, and copper's low resistance keeps the heat lost in those coils small, so windings are almost always copper.

  • about 2.1 Mt copper used in motors worldwide, 2017
  • 7 to 11% copper share by weight of a cast-iron frame induction motor (ICA India)

Industrial motors, appliance motors and vehicle traction motors all use copper windings, and some efficient induction motors use cast copper rotors instead of aluminium. Small motors and fans sometimes use aluminium windings to save cost, at some loss of efficiency.

Sources: International Copper Association; International Copper Association India

2. Efficiency rules add copper

Policy · Medium · Higher IE class → more copper per motor

Much of a motor's loss is heat in the windings, which falls when the copper cross-section rises, so moving from IE2 to IE3 and IE4 tends to add copper and steel to each machine.

  • 38% share of world electricity used by motors, as cited by ICA (2018)
  • 1 October 2017 date India made IE2 the minimum class for covered motors, still the minimum in 2025

The ICA expected motor copper demand to rise towards 2.73 Mt a year by 2022 as efficiency standards spread, with China planning IE3 from 2012. Motors use about 70% of industrial electricity, so the energy saved outweighs the extra metal; an ICA India programme to replace old motors with IE3 units was estimated to pay back in about 2.6 years on average (2017 estimate).

Sources: International Copper Association; International Copper Association India; Power Line

3. Price link: windings

Cost and price · Weak · Both ways

Copper windings are one of the largest material costs in a motor, but makers use metal surcharges and long contracts rather than moving list prices with each copper swing.

  • -0.01 monthly change correlation
  • -0.07 12-month change correlation
  • 0.41 fitted elasticity

Correlations close to zero show that copper reaches motor prices with long delays and only through periodic list revisions. A sustained copper rally, rather than monthly volatility, is what pushes makers to raise prices or substitute aluminium in small motors.

Sources: Material Insights (World Bank, FRED, IMF data)

For investors

Key learnings

  1. Motors used about 2.1 Mt of copper in 2017, making them one of the largest end uses alongside cables.
  2. Efficiency regulation is a quiet copper demand driver, because higher IE classes need more active material per motor.
  3. Motor prices barely follow copper month to month, so maker margins absorb metal swings until surcharges or list revisions catch up.

What to track

  • Minimum motor efficiency class by major market (IE3, IE4): A move up a class raises copper content per motor (As revised · BEE, EU Ecodesign, China GB standards)
  • Motor maker metal surcharges and margins: Shows how much copper cost is passed through (Quarterly · company results (ABB, WEG, Siemens, CG Power))

For policymakers

Key learnings

  1. India has required IE2 as the minimum class since 1 October 2017 and had not yet mandated IE3 in 2025; moving to IE3 would save power but add copper per motor.
  2. Motors use around 28% of India's electricity (ICA India estimate, 2017), so efficiency rules are among the cheapest ways to slow demand growth.
  3. India had over 25 million standard low-voltage motors installed (2017 estimate), so replacing old ones creates a predictable copper demand that domestic smelters and recyclers can plan for.

What to track

  • Minimum motor efficiency class notified in India (IE2 now, IE3 next): A move to IE3 raises copper content and cuts losses per motor (As revised · BEE and BIS (IS 12615))
  • Copper scrap availability and imports: Domestic secondary supply for new windings (Monthly · Ministry of Commerce trade data)

India

India has required at least IE2 for covered three-phase motors since 1 October 2017, with IE3 not yet mandatory in 2025; motors use around 28% of the country's electricity and over 25 million standard low-voltage motors were installed (ICA India, 2017 estimates).

Sources

  1. Copper to Benefit from Global Drive for Motor Efficiency, International Copper Association (2018)
  2. High Efficiency Motors Accelerated Replacement Programme (white paper), International Copper Association India (2017)
  3. Price correlation, Material Insights, Material Insights (World Bank, FRED, IMF data)
  4. Driving efficiency: key trends in the market, Power Line (2025)