# How the material world connects Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ 3,106 pairs of commodities, chemicals, forms of energy and industries are linked on this site. Each pair has a card that explains every relationship between the two and why it exists. The 312 researched cards below add what investors and policymakers should learn and track. ## Chemical and Chemical - [Ammonia and DAP and MAP](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ammonia-and-dap-and-map/): Ammonia supplies all the nitrogen in DAP and MAP, so phosphate fertiliser costs carry an ammonia price on top of phosphoric acid. India imports finished DAP and much of the ammonia and acid to make it, so ammonia shocks reach Indian farms through the subsidy. - [Ammonia and Urea](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ammonia-and-urea/): Urea is the main way ammonia's nitrogen reaches farms: about 55% of world ammonia demand goes into urea, usually made at the same site using the ammonia plant's own CO2. Little ammonia is traded, so urea prices largely set ammonia producers' margins. - [Ammonium nitrate and Urea](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ammonium-nitrate-and-urea/): Ammonium nitrate and urea are rival ways to deliver ammonia's nitrogen to crops: urea is more concentrated and often cheaper per unit of nitrogen, while ammonium nitrate loses far less to the air. Ammonium nitrate's use in explosives brings tight safety and security rules that urea does not face. - [Benzene and Phenol and acetone](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/benzene-and-phenol-and-acetone/): Phenol and acetone are made from benzene and propylene through cumene, and the two products always come out together in a fixed ratio. Cumene is benzene's second largest outlet, so phenol demand for resins and plastics pulls on benzene, while acetone prices shape phenol's economics. - [Benzene and Styrene](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/benzene-and-styrene/): Styrene is benzene's largest outlet: more than half of world benzene goes into ethylbenzene, almost all of which becomes styrene. China's rapid styrene build has therefore reshaped benzene trade as well as styrene trade. - [Biodiesel (FAME) and Glycerine](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/biodiesel-fame-and-glycerine/): Every tonne of FAME biodiesel releases about a tenth of a tonne of crude glycerine, so glycerine supply is set by biodiesel mandates rather than by glycerine demand. When biodiesel grows faster than uses for glycerine, the by-product floods the market; a shift to hydrotreated renewable diesel, which yields propane instead, would cut that supply. - [Biodiesel (FAME) and Renewable diesel and SAF](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/biodiesel-fame-and-renewable-diesel-and-saf/): FAME biodiesel and hydrotreated renewable diesel and SAF are two routes for the same fats and oils. Renewable diesel is a better fuel and earns more credit per gallon in the US, so as waste oil supplies run out the two compete hard for feedstock, with policy deciding who wins. - [Bioethanol and MTBE](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/bioethanol-and-mtbe/): Ethanol and MTBE compete for the same job in petrol: adding octane and oxygen. The US switched from MTBE to ethanol in 2006 after groundwater contamination, and India's 20% ethanol blending, reached in 2025, leaves less room for octane ethers. - [Bisphenol A and Epoxy resins](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/bisphenol-a-and-epoxy-resins/): Epoxy resin is the second largest outlet for bisphenol A after polycarbonate: standard liquid epoxy is BPA reacted with epichlorohydrin, a chlorine and propylene derivative, so demand for coatings, laminates and wind blades pulls on BPA. Polycarbonate took nearly two-thirds of BPA demand in 2020, so epoxy makers usually take a BPA price that polycarbonate demand sets. - [Bisphenol A and Polycarbonate](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/bisphenol-a-and-polycarbonate/): Polycarbonate is the largest use of bisphenol A, nearly two-thirds of world demand in 2020, so polycarbonate demand and new polycarbonate lines decide BPA run rates and prices. Both production routes start from BPA; the interfacial route also needs phosgene, which ties the chain to chlorine. - [Butadiene and Ethylene](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/butadiene-and-ethylene/): Butadiene is almost entirely a by-product of ethylene crackers, so its supply follows cracker runs and feed choice rather than tyre demand. A naphtha cracker yields about seven times more butadiene per tonne of ethylene than an ethane cracker, so the shift to cheap shale and Gulf ethane tightened butadiene supply. - [Caprolactam and Nylon (PA6, PA66)](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/caprolactam-and-nylon-pa6-pa66/): Caprolactam is the monomer of nylon 6, so the two form one chain in which nylon 6 is priced as caprolactam plus a margin. Nylon 66 is made from other monomers, so caprolactam ties to only part of the nylon family, and older caprolactam routes also turn out large volumes of ammonium sulphate fertiliser. - [Caustic soda and Chlorine](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/caustic-soda-and-chlorine/): Chlorine and caustic soda come out of the same brine electrolysis in a fixed ratio of about 1.1 t of caustic per tonne of chlorine, so neither can be made alone. Plants run for whichever product is in demand and the other's price absorbs the imbalance; electricity is the largest cost of both. - [Chlorine and Hydrogen](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/chlorine-and-hydrogen/): Every tonne of chlorine made by brine electrolysis brings about 30 kg of hydrogen, so chlor-alkali plants are a small but steady source of electrolytic hydrogen whose volume follows chlorine demand. Plants burn it as fuel, combine it with chlorine to make hydrochloric acid, turn it into hydrogen peroxide, or sell it. - [Chlorine and Polyurethanes (MDI, TDI, polyols)](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/chlorine-and-polyurethanes-mdi-tdi-polyols/): MDI and TDI, the isocyanate half of polyurethanes, are made with phosgene from chlorine and carbon monoxide. The chlorine does not stay in the foam: it leaves as hydrogen chloride, which plants recycle to chlorine or sell, so isocyanate complexes are built beside chlor-alkali or HCl recovery units. - [Chlorine and Titanium dioxide](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/chlorine-and-titanium-dioxide/): The chloride route to titanium dioxide chlorinates titanium feed into titanium tetrachloride and then burns it back to pigment, recovering most of the chlorine for reuse, so only make-up chlorine is bought. About half of world pigment is made this way, but in China, the largest producer, the sulphate route, which uses sulphuric acid instead of chlorine, still dominates. - [DAP and MAP and Phosphoric acid](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/dap-and-map-and-phosphoric-acid/): DAP and MAP are phosphoric acid neutralised with ammonia, so acid is their main input and price driver. For India the choice is between importing finished DAP, importing acid and granulating at home, or importing rock and making acid, and its quarterly acid contract with Moroccan and Jordanian suppliers is a key cost benchmark. - [Ethylene and Methanol](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ethylene-and-methanol/): In China, methanol-to-olefins (MTO) plants turn about 2.6 to 3 t of methanol into a tonne of ethylene and propylene, so methanol competes with naphtha and ethane as an olefin feed. Olefin prices therefore cap what MTO plants can pay for methanol, and coastal MTO plants that buy imported methanol are the swing users. - [Ethylene and PVC](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ethylene-and-pvc/): Outside China, PVC is built on ethylene: ethylene and chlorine make ethylene dichloride, which is cracked to vinyl chloride and polymerised, a chain that takes about 15% of world ethylene. China makes most of its PVC from coal via calcium carbide instead, and in January to October 2025 it sent 42% of its PVC exports to India, the largest buyer on the world market. - [Ethylene and Polyethylene (LDPE, LLDPE)](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ethylene-and-polyethylene-ldpe-lldpe/): Polyethylene is the main use of ethylene, taking more than 60% of it across all grades, so cracker earnings rise and fall with polyethylene demand. Owners of both the cracker and the polymer line keep the whole chain margin, but the wave of new capacity, led by China, has kept even integrated Asian margins weak since late 2021. - [Ethylene and Propylene](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ethylene-and-propylene/): Ethylene and propylene come out of the same steam cracker, in proportions fixed largely by the feed: ethane gives almost no propylene, naphtha gives about half as much propylene as ethylene. The move of US crackers to cheap ethane cut co-product propylene, and dedicated routes such as propane dehydrogenation grew to fill the gap. - [Hydrofluoric acid and Sulphuric acid](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/hydrofluoric-acid-and-sulphuric-acid/): Hydrogen fluoride is made by heating acid-grade fluorspar with sulphuric acid, about 2.45 t of acid per tonne of HF in theory, leaving about 3.6 t of anhydrite. Fluorspar, 60% of it mined in China in 2025, is the scarce and dearer input; sulphuric acid is the bulk reagent, whose cost rose with the 2025 to 2026 sulphur spike. - [Linear alkylbenzene and Surfactants](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/linear-alkylbenzene-and-surfactants/): Linear alkylbenzene exists almost only to be sulphonated into LAS, one of the largest surfactants, so LAB demand is laundry detergent demand. LAB was 60 to 70% of the cost of making LAS acid in 2026, which ties detergent costs to benzene and Gulf supply; India imported over 40% of its LAB in 2022-23 and since June 2025 taxes imports from Iran and Qatar. - [Monoethylene glycol and Purified terephthalic acid](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/monoethylene-glycol-and-purified-terephthalic-acid/): MEG and PTA are the two halves of every polyester and PET molecule, bought together by the same plants in a fixed ratio. Both chains are centred on China, where capacity has outrun demand, so their margins have been squeezed at the same time even while polyester plants ran hard. - [PET resin and Purified terephthalic acid](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/pet-resin-and-purified-terephthalic-acid/): PTA is one of PET's two building blocks, joined with MEG and then solid-stated into bottle resin, so PET bottles are a direct, steady outlet for PTA. India now protects bottle-grade PET with a $200.66 a tonne duty on Chinese resin while buying more Chinese PTA, which tends to support domestic resin makers' margins. - [Paints and coatings and Titanium dioxide](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/paints-and-coatings-and-titanium-dioxide/): Titanium dioxide is the white pigment that gives paint its hiding power, and paint took about 56% of all TiO2 in 2020. It can be up to 40% of a paint's raw material cost, so pigment prices and trade duties flow into paint makers' margins; Chinese pigment met about 57% of India's demand in the investigation period, and India imposed new duties in October 2026. - [Paraxylene and Toluene](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/paraxylene-and-toluene/): Toluene is the main swing feed for extra paraxylene: transalkylation and disproportionation units turn toluene, often mixed with heavier aromatics, into xylenes and benzene, and can more than double the paraxylene an aromatics complex makes from the same naphtha. Whether toluene goes there or into petrol depends on the spread between them. - [Phosphoric acid and Sulphuric acid](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/phosphoric-acid-and-sulphuric-acid/): Wet-process phosphoric acid is made by dissolving phosphate rock in sulphuric acid, so large phosphoric acid plants usually run their own sulphuric acid plant beside them. That makes sulphur a direct cost of phosphate fertiliser: the 2026 sulphur spike lifted India's phosphoric acid contract by $340 a tonne of P2O5 in one quarter. - [Plasticisers and PVC](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/plasticisers-and-pvc/): Plasticisers exist mainly to make PVC flexible: over 90% of those used in Europe go into flexible PVC for cables, flooring and film, so health rules on phthalates and PVC demand set the plasticiser market. - [Polyester fibre and Purified terephthalic acid](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/polyester-fibre-and-purified-terephthalic-acid/): PTA is the larger of the two building blocks of polyester, so polyester yarn and fibre makers live on a thin spread over PTA and MEG; in India, Reliance sits on both sides and trade rules on PTA decide how much cheap Chinese supply reaches spinners. - [Polypropylene and Propylene](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/polypropylene-and-propylene/): About two-thirds of the world's propylene is made into polypropylene, so PP margins are a spread over propylene, and the route that supplies the propylene (cracker, refinery or propane dehydrogenation) sets the cost floor. - [Propylene oxide and Styrene](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/propylene-oxide-and-styrene/): The PO/SM process makes about 2.3 tonnes of styrene with every tonne of propylene oxide, so a weak styrene market can close propylene oxide capacity; routes such as HPPO that make no styrene avoid this tie. ## Chemical and Commodity - [Ammonia and Phosphate rock](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ammonia-and-phosphate-rock/): DAP, a leading phosphate fertiliser, is phosphoric acid from phosphate rock neutralised with ammonia, about 0.22 t of ammonia per tonne, so the two are co-inputs whose costs add up in the finished product, and India imports a large share of both. - [Battery cathode materials and Nickel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/battery-cathode-materials-and-nickel/): Nickel is a main metal in NMC and NCA cathodes, but stainless steel still takes just under 70% of primary nickel and the spread of nickel-free iron phosphate (LFP) cathodes limits battery demand. Much of the nickel for cathodes now comes from Indonesian plants, many of them Chinese-owned. - [Biodiesel (FAME) and Palm oil](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/biodiesel-fame-and-palm-oil/): Palm oil is the feedstock for Indonesia's biodiesel programme, which used 14.2 million kL in 2025, so each rise in the blend mandate takes palm oil off the export market. Importers such as India feel this through tighter supply and a narrower discount of palm to soft oils. - [Biodiesel (FAME) and Soybeans](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/biodiesel-fame-and-soybeans/): Soybean oil, the smaller of the two products of crushing soybeans, is the main feedstock for biodiesel in the US and Brazil, and USDA expected biofuel makers to use more than half of US soybean oil in 2025/26. US blending volumes and Brazil's mandate therefore move the value of the oil, the crush margin and the soyoil available to importers such as India. - [Bioethanol and Maize](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/bioethanol-and-maize/): Maize is the main feedstock for US ethanol, with about a third of the 2025/26 US crop expected to go to distilleries, and India turned into a maize importer in 2024 as its distilleries switched to maize. Just under a third of each tonne returns to the feed market as distillers grains, so ethanol and livestock compete for, and share, the same grain. - [Bioethanol and Rice](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/bioethanol-and-rice/): In India, rice from the government's surplus stocks has become a major ethanol feedstock, sold to distilleries at a fixed price. Its use rises and falls with official judgements about food stocks, so the link is a policy valve rather than a market price relationship. - [Bioethanol and Sugar](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/bioethanol-and-sugar/): Sugar and ethanol are made from the same cane, so mills in Brazil and India choose how much sucrose to turn into each. In India the choice is regulated: diverting about 3.5 Mt of sugar a year into ethanol supports E20 but is cut back when sugar supply looks tight. - [Biogas and biomethane and Sugar](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/biogas-and-biomethane-and-sugar/): Every tonne of cane crushed for sugar leaves 3 to 4% of its weight as press mud, a wet residue that digests well into biogas, so India's sugar belt is a natural base for compressed biogas plants under SATAT. The tie runs through a by-product, not through sugar prices, and its weak points are seasonal supply and a rising press mud price. - [Caustic soda and Salt](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/caustic-soda-and-salt/): Caustic soda is made by passing electricity through salt brine, so each tonne needs roughly one and a half tonnes of salt, but salt is cheap and power is not. The link that matters is physical and geographic: salt quality for membrane cells and access to coastal salt, which is why India's chlor-alkali industry clusters in Gujarat. - [Cement and Construction chemicals](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/cement-and-construction-chemicals/): Construction chemicals and cement are used together: admixtures are dosed into cement-based concrete to cut water and cement, grinding aids go into cement itself, and many tile adhesives and repair mortars are cement-based products. Their makers share the same construction demand, and admixtures are one of the main tools for lowering cement, and so CO2, per cubic metre of concrete. - [Chlorine and Salt](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/chlorine-and-salt/): Almost all chlorine is made from salt: electrolysing brine yields chlorine together with caustic soda, using about 1.65 tonnes of salt per tonne of chlorine in theory. Chlor-alkali makers are India's major industrial salt users, yet salt prices hardly affect chlorine, because salt is cheap and power is the main cost. - [Copper and Fungicides](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-fungicides/): Copper salts such as copper oxychloride, copper hydroxide and Bordeaux mixture are among the oldest fungicides and remain a mainstay of organic and wet-climate farming. The tie matters far more to fungicides than to copper, and in Europe regulation, not the metal price, now sets how much copper farmers can use. - [Copper and Sulphuric acid](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-sulphuric-acid/): Copper and sulphuric acid are tied both ways: smelting sulphide concentrates makes roughly 4 tonnes of acid per tonne of copper, while leach mines consume acid to dissolve oxide ore. Acid sales now prop up smelter margins when treatment charges are weak, and acid shortages raise costs at leach mines, notably in Chile. - [Cotton and Viscose fibre](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/cotton-and-viscose-fibre/): Viscose is cellulose from wood pulp regenerated into a fibre that handles much like cotton, so the two compete for the same spinning mills and garments and are often blended. Cotton is about three times larger by volume, and in India the viscose industry runs almost entirely on imported dissolving pulp. - [DAP and MAP and Phosphate rock](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/dap-and-map-and-phosphate-rock/): DAP and MAP are the main products made from phosphate rock: each tonne of DAP needs about 1.5 to 2 tonnes of rock, turned into phosphoric acid and reacted with ammonia. Rock supply is concentrated in China and Morocco, and India, the largest DAP importer, depends on imports for about 90% of its rock. - [DAP and MAP and Sulfur](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/dap-and-map-and-sulfur/): Phosphate fertiliser plants burn sulphur to make the sulphuric acid that dissolves phosphate rock, using about 0.4 tonnes of sulphur per tonne of DAP. Sulphur supply is set by oil and gas processing rather than by fertiliser demand, so sulphur price spikes, such as the rise from under USD 100 to over USD 1,000 a tonne between 2024 and 2026, pass straight into DAP costs. - [Fatty alcohols and Palm oil](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/fatty-alcohols-and-palm-oil/): Most fatty alcohols for detergents and personal care are made from palm kernel oil and other plant oils, so their price moves closely with palm oil prices. A petrochemical route from ethylene competes for the same market, which caps how far the oleochemical route can price above it. - [Hydrochloric acid and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/hydrochloric-acid-and-steel/): Steel mills use hydrochloric acid to pickle hot-rolled strip before cold rolling and coating, making steel one of the main outlets for an acid that is mostly a by-product of chlorine chemistry. Large mills regenerate up to 99.5% of their acid, so merchant demand comes mainly from smaller pickling lines. - [Hydrogen and Water](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/hydrogen-and-water/): Electrolysis makes hydrogen by splitting water, using about 9 litres of purified water per kilogram before cooling needs. The volumes are small next to farming, but many of the sunniest and windiest sites planned for green hydrogen, including in western India, are short of fresh water, so siting and water sourcing matter. - [Jute and Polypropylene](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/jute-and-polypropylene/): Woven polypropylene sacks are cheaper, less bulky and more resistant to moisture than jute sacks, and Indian cement and fertiliser makers have long preferred them. Jute keeps the foodgrain sack market largely because the Jute Packaging Materials Act reserves 100% of foodgrains and 20% of sugar for jute bags. - [Maize and Starch and cellulose derivatives](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/maize-and-starch-and-cellulose-derivatives/): Maize is the main raw material for starch: wet milling turns a 56 lb bushel into about 31.5 lb of starch plus feed and oil co-products, and the starch goes on to food, paper, textiles and pharmaceuticals. In India, fast-growing maize demand from ethanol distilleries now competes directly with starch makers for the grain. - [Maize and Urea](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/maize-and-urea/): Maize is one of the three cereals that together take about half of the world's nitrogen fertiliser, and urea is the main form in which that nitrogen is bought. Fertiliser is a third or more of US maize operating costs, so the urea to maize price ratio shapes how much farmers apply and, over a season, feeds back into urea demand. - [Natural rubber and Styrene-butadiene rubber](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/natural-rubber-and-styrene-butadiene-rubber/): Natural rubber and styrene-butadiene rubber split the world rubber market roughly in half and are bought by the same tyre makers, but they cannot be swapped freely: truck tyres need natural rubber, car treads lean on SBR. Natural rubber's price follows tree supply and weather, SBR's follows oil-based monomers, so the gap between them moves a lot while the substitution between them stays limited. - [Oxygen and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/oxygen-and-steel/): Steelmaking is one of the largest industrial uses of oxygen: each tonne of converter steel needs about 55 to 60 cubic metres of high-purity oxygen, mostly made in air separation plants at the steelworks. Because the gas is made on site under long contracts, the tie is physical and operational rather than a traded price link, as India saw in 2021 when steel plants were called on to supply medical oxygen. - [Palm oil and Renewable diesel and SAF](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/palm-oil-and-renewable-diesel-and-saf/): Palm oil is the largest single feedstock for diesel-type biofuels worldwide, and its mill residues are prized as waste-based inputs for renewable diesel and SAF. EU rules are pushing virgin palm oil out of these fuels by 2030 while rewarding residues, which has created incentives to mislabel palm oil as waste. - [Palm oil and Surfactants](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/palm-oil-and-surfactants/): Many cleaning surfactants start from palm, mainly from palm kernel oil, whose short-chain lauric fats make the fatty alcohols behind shampoos and liquid detergents. Kernel oil is a small co-product of palm oil, so surfactant makers depend on a supply set by palm harvests, and they can switch to petrochemical routes such as LAS when palm-based inputs are dear. - [Phosphate rock and Phosphoric acid](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/phosphate-rock-and-phosphoric-acid/): Phosphoric acid is the step through which almost all mined phosphate reaches fertiliser: rock is dissolved in sulphuric acid, and roughly three tonnes of rock go into each tonne of P2O5. Integrated producers turn most of their rock into acid before it leaves the country, as with over 95% of US-mined rock in 2025, while India imports rock, acid and DAP. - [Phosphate rock and Sulphuric acid](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/phosphate-rock-and-sulphuric-acid/): Sulphuric acid is the reagent that unlocks phosphate rock: it dissolves the rock into phosphoric acid and leaves four to five tonnes of gypsum per tonne of P2O5. Phosphate fertiliser is the largest use of sulphur, so sulphur and acid price spikes go straight into phosphate costs. - [Rubber chemicals and Sulfur](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/rubber-chemicals-and-sulfur/): Sulphur and rubber chemicals are the two halves of the cure that turns raw rubber into a tyre: sulphur forms the cross-links and accelerators, themselves partly made with sulphur, control how fast and how well they form. Rubber is a small outlet for sulphur next to fertiliser, so rubber chemical makers take sulphur prices set by the phosphate market. - [Sulfur and Sulphuric acid](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/sulfur-and-sulphuric-acid/): Most sulphur ends up as sulphuric acid: it is burned to sulphur dioxide and converted to acid, mainly for phosphate fertiliser and metal leaching. Sulphur is a by-product of cleaning oil and gas, so its supply does not respond to acid demand, and when a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz cut Gulf shipments in 2026, the delivered acid price in northern Chile doubled in about seven weeks. - [Sulphuric acid and Zinc](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/sulphuric-acid-and-zinc/): Most zinc is made by roasting sulphide concentrate, and the sulphur dioxide given off is turned into sulphuric acid, so every zinc smelter is also an acid plant. Acid is a by-product that must be sold or disposed of whatever its price: when acid is dear it props up smelter margins, and when it is cheap it becomes a cost. - [Titanium and Titanium dioxide](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/titanium-and-titanium-dioxide/): Titanium dioxide pigment is the main use of titanium ore, so the white pigment market, not aircraft metal, largely sets the price of ilmenite and rutile. Pigment and metal share one step, titanium tetrachloride, and China leads both industries. - [Urea and Wheat](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/urea-and-wheat/): Wheat is one of the largest users of urea nitrogen, taking about a fifth of India's nitrogen fertiliser. In India a frozen urea price and a rising wheat support price keep heavy nitrogen use attractive, and the cost of that lands on the fertiliser subsidy. ## Chemical and Energy - [Ammonia and Hydrogen and hydrogen carriers](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ammonia-and-hydrogen-and-hydrogen-carriers/): Ammonia is the leading way to ship hydrogen over long distances because it liquefies easily and already has ships and ports, but making it and cracking it back to hydrogen can together use a quarter or more of the hydrogen's energy. It works best where the ammonia is used as it is. - [Ammonia and Natural gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ammonia-and-natural-gas/): Most of the world's ammonia is made from natural gas, which supplies both the hydrogen and the process heat, so gas is most of an ammonia plant's cost. When gas prices spike, as in Europe in 2022, ammonia output is cut and fertiliser prices rise. - [Ammonia and Thermal coal](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ammonia-and-thermal-coal/): About a quarter of the world's ammonia is made by gasifying coal, almost all of it in China, where coal is cheaper and more secure than gas. India is trying the same route to cut LNG imports for urea, but its first plant at Talcher has been delayed and was targeting commissioning by December 2027. - [Aviation propulsion and Renewable diesel and SAF](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aviation-propulsion-and-renewable-diesel-and-saf/): Sustainable aviation fuel is a drop-in replacement for jet fuel that existing engines can burn in blends, but it was only about 0.6% of jet fuel in 2025 and costs at least twice as much. Its growth is set by mandates such as ReFuelEU and India's CORSIA-linked targets, not by price. - [Benzene and Coking coal](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/benzene-and-coking-coal/): When coking coal is baked into coke for steelmaking, the oven gas carries crude benzol, which is recovered and refined into benzene. It is a by-product whose volume follows steel output, not benzene demand, and it matters most in China, where it supplied about a fifth of benzene in 2022. - [Benzene and Crude oil](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/benzene-and-crude-oil/): Benzene is extracted from naphtha-derived streams in refineries and crackers, so crude oil sets its cost floor; producers earn the benzene to naphtha spread, which turned negative in March 2026 when naphtha spiked. - [Bioethanol and Combustion road vehicles](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/bioethanol-and-combustion-road-vehicles/): Almost all fuel ethanol is burned in petrol vehicles, so blending mandates such as India's E20 decide its market, while its lower energy content trims fuel economy by a few per cent. - [Carbon black and Crude oil](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/carbon-black-and-crude-oil/): Carbon black is made by partly burning heavy aromatic oil from crude refining, and tyre makers buy much of it on crude-linked formulas, so oil prices pass through to it with a lag of about a quarter. - [Chlorine and Energy-intensive industry](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/chlorine-and-energy-intensive-industry/): Chlorine is made by electrolysis of brine, which puts chlor-alkali among the energy-intensive industries: electricity was about 60% of its manufacturing cost in India in 2021, so power prices set where chlorine can be made. - [Crude oil and Ethylene](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/crude-oil-and-ethylene/): Outside the US and the Gulf, much ethylene is cracked from crude-derived naphtha, so oil sets its cost; naphtha crackers yield as little as 30% ethylene and are the high-cost supply, now squeezed by Asian overcapacity. - [Crude oil and Paraxylene](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/crude-oil-and-paraxylene/): Paraxylene is separated from refinery reformate made from crude-derived naphtha, so crude sets its cost and producers earn the paraxylene to naphtha spread, which needs about $300 to 350 a tonne to pay. - [Crude oil and Propylene](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/crude-oil-and-propylene/): Most propylene is a by-product of cracking crude-derived naphtha and of refinery catalytic crackers, so oil sets its cost, but propane dehydrogenation is a growing route that loosens the link. - [Ethylene and Natural gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ethylene-and-natural-gas/): Ethane separated from natural gas cracks into ethylene at over 80% yield, against about 30% for naphtha, so gas-rich regions make the cheapest ethylene and set the competitive bar for oil-based crackers. - [Hydrogen and Natural gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/hydrogen-and-natural-gas/): Steam reforming of natural gas makes most of the world's hydrogen, using 290 bcm of gas in 2024, so gas sets grey hydrogen's cost; carbon capture and electrolysis are the routes away from unabated gas, both still dearer. - [Hydrogen and Refining and reforming](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/hydrogen-and-refining-and-reforming/): Refineries are among the largest hydrogen users, needing it to remove sulphur from fuels and upgrade heavy oil; they make some in their reformers and the rest from gas, and they are now the first big buyers of green hydrogen. - [Methanol and Natural gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/methanol-and-natural-gas/): Outside China almost all methanol is made by reforming natural gas, which is its main cost, so plants are built where gas is cheap and stop when their gas supply fails. - [Methanol and Thermal coal](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/methanol-and-thermal-coal/): China makes most of its methanol, the world's largest share, by gasifying coal, so Chinese coal costs shape the marginal tonne in Asia; the route is cheap where coal is cheap but emits several times more carbon than gas, and India now plans to copy it. - [Monoethylene glycol and Thermal coal](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/monoethylene-glycol-and-thermal-coal/): About two fifths of China's glycol capacity now runs on coal-based syngas rather than ethylene, so Chinese coal costs help set the floor for Asian MEG prices that Indian polyester makers pay. - [Natural gas and Urea](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/natural-gas-and-urea/): Urea is gas turned into a solid fertiliser: gas supplies the hydrogen for ammonia and most of the energy, so gas is the largest cost and sets the world price floor. In India a pooled gas price and a fixed farm price push gas cost shocks onto the subsidy bill rather than onto farmers. - [PVC and Thermal coal](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/pvc-and-thermal-coal/): Most Chinese PVC is made from coal through calcium carbide and acetylene, an electricity-hungry, mercury-dependent route, so Chinese coal and power costs shape the price of much of the PVC that India imports. - [Refining and reforming and Renewable diesel and SAF](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/refining-and-reforming-and-renewable-diesel-and-saf/): Renewable diesel and SAF are made with refinery kit, hydrotreaters and hydrogen, so oil refiners make them either by co-processing fats with crude fractions or by converting whole refineries; the fuels then sell into the same diesel and jet markets. ## Chemical and Industry - [Antibiotic intermediates (6-APA, 7-ACA) and Pharmaceuticals](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/antibiotic-intermediates-6-apa-7-aca-and-pharmaceuticals/): 6-APA and 7-ACA are the molecular cores from which penicillins such as amoxicillin and cephalosporins such as ceftriaxone are made, so generic antibiotic makers cannot work without them. Production is concentrated in China, and India is using incentives, floor prices and trade remedies to rebuild its own fermentation chain. - [Battery anode materials and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/battery-anode-materials-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Every lithium-ion cell in an electric vehicle needs an anode, almost always graphite, the largest active material in the cell by mass. China refines more than 90% of the world's graphite and has required licences for key graphite exports since December 2023, so carmakers' battery supply chains outside China depend on new anode plants that take years to qualify. - [Battery cathode materials and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/battery-cathode-materials-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): The cathode is the most expensive part of an EV battery cell and sets its range and cost, so carmakers' choice between nickel-rich NMC and cheaper iron phosphate (LFP) cathodes shapes both vehicle prices and metal demand. China makes almost all cathode material, and India's cell incentive scheme has so far delivered only a small part of its target. - [Battery electrolytes and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/battery-electrolytes-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): The liquid electrolyte, a lithium salt (usually LiPF6) dissolved in carbonate solvents, lets lithium ions move between the electrodes of every EV cell. Chinese suppliers provide most of it, its salt has swung through sharp price cycles, and its flammability and toxic decomposition products make it central to EV fire safety. - [Biogas and biomethane and Waste and recycling](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/biogas-and-biomethane-and-waste-and-recycling/): Wet organic waste, from city food waste to cattle dung and sugar-mill press mud, is the raw material for compressed biogas, so India's SATAT, GOBARdhan and blending mandate turn waste handling into a gas supply business; plant economics rest on clean, segregated feedstock and on selling the manure as well as the gas. - [CMP slurries and pads and Semiconductors](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/cmp-slurries-and-pads-and-semiconductors/): Chipmakers polish wafers flat after many layers using slurries and pads that are consumed as they work, so CMP consumables grow with wafer output and with the number of polishing steps that new chip designs add; supply is concentrated, with one firm holding over half of pads, and the abrasives tie the chain to China's rare earths. - [Caustic soda and Paper and packaging](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/caustic-soda-and-paper-and-packaging/): Caustic soda is one of the two active chemicals in kraft pulping liquor; mills recover most of it but must buy make-up, about 35 kg per tonne of market pulp, so virgin-fibre pulp is a steady caustic buyer whose supply depends on chlorine and PVC demand. In India, where three quarters of paper is made from recycled fibre, paper takes only about 6% of caustic demand. - [Chlorine and Water and sanitation](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/chlorine-and-water-and-sanitation/): Chlorine is the standard disinfectant for piped water because it leaves a residual that keeps protecting water in the pipes, so water utilities treat it as a non-negotiable input; because chlorine is bought from nearby plants, a single outage can leave utilities short within weeks, as in the US Pacific Northwest in 2021. - [Construction and infrastructure and Construction chemicals](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/construction-and-infrastructure-and-construction-chemicals/): Construction chemicals are a small dose with a large effect: admixtures added at well under 2% of cement weight decide how concrete flows, sets and lasts, so their makers' volumes rise and fall with building and infrastructure activity. - [Electrical equipment and Epoxy resins](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/electrical-equipment-and-epoxy-resins/): Epoxy is the solid insulation of the grid: transformer windings, switchgear parts and insulators are cast in it, so a build-out of transmission and distribution pulls on resin supply, and trade duties on resin feed straight into equipment makers' costs. - [Electrical equipment and PVC](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/electrical-equipment-and-pvc/): PVC is the standard insulation and sheath for low-voltage wire and cable because it is cheap, tough and flame-retardant, so cable makers are a steady PVC buyer; at higher temperatures and voltages and in low-smoke uses, polyethylene and XLPE take over, and in India cable makers buy into a resin market historically up to half supplied by imports. - [Electronic specialty gases and Semiconductors](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/electronic-specialty-gases-and-semiconductors/): Chipmaking runs on ultra-pure gases for etching, deposition, doping, chamber cleaning and lithography lasers, a market forecast at about $6.3 billion in 2025 that grows with memory layers and new fabs; some gases come from few places, as the 2022 war showed when Ukraine's neon plants, roughly half of chip-grade supply, shut down. - [Flavours and fragrances and Food and beverage processing](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/flavours-and-fragrances-and-food-and-beverage-processing/): Packaged food and drink makers buy their taste from a few flavour houses, which pass input costs on in their prices; India sits upstream as the main source of mint oil and a large exporter of spice oils and oleoresins, while synthetic menthol and food safety rules set limits on natural flavour demand. - [Fluorochemicals and refrigerants and Food and beverage processing](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/fluorochemicals-and-refrigerants-and-food-and-beverage-processing/): Food's cold chain, from supermarket chillers to refrigerated trucks, runs largely on HFC refrigerants such as R404A, while India's big cold stores mostly use ammonia; the Kigali phase-down, with India freezing HFCs in 2028, will push food cold chains towards lower-warming refrigerants as cooling demand grows. - [Fluoropolymers (PTFE, PVDF) and Semiconductors](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/fluoropolymers-ptfe-pvdf-and-semiconductors/): Fabs carry their ultra-pure acids and solvents in PFA and PTFE tubing, valves, tanks and filters because nothing else resists them without shedding contaminants, so chipmaking is exposed to the EU's planned group ban on PFAS and to supplier exits such as 3M's; industry says qualifying replacements can take 5 to 25 years. - [Food and beverage processing and Food and feed additives](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/food-and-beverage-processing-and-food-and-feed-additives/): Packaged foods rely on small doses of emulsifiers, preservatives, colours and flour treatments for texture, shelf life and consistency, and in India FSSAI decides which additives may go into which food; a single ruling, such as the 2016 ban on potassium bromate in bread, can force a whole product category to reformulate. - [Hydrofluoric acid and Semiconductors](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/hydrofluoric-acid-and-semiconductors/): Ultra-high-purity hydrofluoric acid is used to clean wafers and etch oxide layers in every fab, and its supply runs from mostly Chinese fluorspar through a few mainly Japanese purifiers; Japan's 2019 curbs on Korea showed how a cheap chemical can become a lever over chipmaking. - [Methanol and Pharmaceuticals](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/methanol-and-pharmaceuticals/): Methanol is a crucial solvent for making and purifying drug intermediates and APIs, and India imports over 90% of the methanol it uses, mostly from the Middle East, so a Gulf supply shock reaches Indian drug makers directly. - [Paints and coatings and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/paints-and-coatings-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Every vehicle body passes through a multi-layer paint shop and every hull needs anti-fouling paint, so coating makers sell into vehicle and ship production and then again into repair: at Axalta, a leading supplier, refinish for body shops was 40% of 2025 sales against 36% for light and commercial vehicle makers. - [Pharma starting materials and intermediates and Pharmaceuticals](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/pharma-starting-materials-and-intermediates-and-pharmaceuticals/): Key starting materials and intermediates are the chemical building blocks of every API, and India, a large generic drug maker, bought about 72% of its bulk drug and intermediate imports from China in FY2023-24; the PLI scheme for bulk drugs has started domestic output but has not yet cut that share. - [Photoresists and Semiconductors](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/photoresists-and-semiconductors/): Every lithography step in a fab prints its pattern into a photoresist, and the leading-edge grades, above all EUV resists, come almost entirely from a few Japanese firms; that made photoresist one of the three materials Japan used in its 2019 curbs on South Korea. - [Polypropylene and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/polypropylene-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Polypropylene is the plastic used most in cars, moulded into bumpers, dashboards, door panels and trims because it is light, cheap and easy to mould; lightweighting raised its use, and EU rules agreed in 2025 will require new cars to carry recycled plastic, which is likely to raise demand for recovered PP. - [Renewable diesel and SAF and Transport and logistics](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/renewable-diesel-and-saf-and-transport-and-logistics/): Renewable diesel (HVO) and sustainable aviation fuel are drop-in fuels that let trucks and aircraft cut emissions without new engines, but SAF was only about 0.6% of jet fuel in 2025 at roughly twice the price, so mandates such as ReFuelEU and India's 2027 target turn them into a cost line for airlines and logistics firms. - [Semiconductors and Ultra-pure wet chemicals](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/semiconductors-and-ultra-pure-wet-chemicals/): Fabs clean, etch and strip wafers many times over with ultra-pure acids, peroxide and solvents, so these chemicals are made close to the big fab clusters in Taiwan, Korea, Japan and China; a new fab region such as India must import them or persuade suppliers to build locally. - [Water and sanitation and Water treatment chemicals](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/water-and-sanitation-and-water-treatment-chemicals/): Surface water for piped supply is coagulated, usually with alum or polyaluminium chloride, and chlorinated to leave a residual at the tap, and sewage plants use polymers to dewater sludge; so the build-out of taps under Jal Jeevan Mission and of sewage treatment in India sets a steady, rule-driven demand for these chemicals. ## Commodity and Commodity - [Aluminium and Copper](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aluminium-and-copper/): Aluminium is the main substitute for copper in power cable, radiators, cooling tube and some electrical equipment, so the copper to aluminium price ratio, which rose from about 3.5 to about 4.1 times during 2025, shapes the incentive to switch; the two prices also share the industrial cycle. - [Aluminium and Gallium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aluminium-and-gallium/): Most primary gallium is a by-product of alumina refining, and China, which refined about 62% of the world's alumina in 2025, makes 99% of primary low-purity gallium; its export controls since August 2023 have turned this trace by-product into a supply security issue. - [Antimony and Lead](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/antimony-and-lead/): Antimony hardens lead for battery grids and ammunition, and much of it is recovered from scrap batteries at lead smelters, so the lead-acid battery chain is both a main user and a main recycled source of antimony; antimony prices more than doubled in 2025 after China's 2024 export curbs. - [Cadmium and Zinc](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/cadmium-and-zinc/): Cadmium is recovered mainly as a by-product of zinc refining, so its primary supply follows zinc smelter output, not cadmium demand; toxicity rules restrict many of its uses, while CdTe thin-film solar panels are a growing outlet. - [Cement and Gypsum](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/cement-and-gypsum/): Cement contains about 4 to 5% gypsum, ground in with clinker to control setting, and USGS finds no practical substitute for it; India imported about 35% of the gypsum its cement plants used in FY2022-23, so supply, not price, is the main link. - [Cement and Sand & gravel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/cement-and-sand-and-gravel/): Concrete is mostly aggregate held together by cement, roughly 5 to 6 tonnes of aggregate for every tonne of cement, so the two are consumed together and share the construction cycle; in India, river sand rules make aggregate supply a tighter constraint than cement. - [Cement and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/cement-and-steel/): Granulated blast furnace slag from ironmaking is ground into GGBS and slag cement to replace clinker, and both materials depend on construction demand; in India, JSW Steel's slag feeds JSW Cement, the largest GGBS maker. - [Cobalt and Copper](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/cobalt-and-copper/): About three quarters of cobalt is mined as a by-product of copper, mostly in DR Congo, so cobalt supply follows copper investment; Congo's 2025 export ban and quotas showed that cobalt can be held back while copper keeps flowing. - [Cobalt and Nickel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/cobalt-and-nickel/): About a fifth of by-product cobalt comes from nickel ores, and Indonesia's high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) plants have made it the second largest cobalt producer, selling nickel and cobalt together in mixed hydroxide for batteries; both metals also share the NMC battery market and the threat from LFP, which uses neither. - [Copper and Gold](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-gold/): Gold is a valuable by-product of porphyry copper mines and is recovered at copper smelters; at Grasberg, gold, silver and other credits cut the reported copper cash cost by about 70% in the first quarter of 2025. Prices are only moderately correlated because demand for the two differs. - [Copper and Molybdenum](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-molybdenum/): Outside China and the United States, almost all molybdenum is recovered from copper mines, so molybdenum supply follows copper mine plans and copper miners earn part of their revenue from a steel-alloy metal. - [Copper and Nickel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-nickel/): Copper and nickel share a price cycle and are mined together from magmatic sulphide ores such as Norilsk, but Indonesia's laterite boom has pulled nickel onto its own supply-driven path. - [Copper and Selenium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-selenium/): More than 80% of selenium comes from the anode slimes left by electrolytic copper refining, so selenium supply is fixed by copper refinery output, not by selenium demand. - [Copper and Silver](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-silver/): Most silver is a by-product of base-metal and gold mining, with copper mines such as KGHM's among the largest sources, and both metals depend on electrical and solar demand. - [Copper and Sulfur](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-sulfur/): Copper smelters make sulphuric acid as a by-product and copper leaching consumes it, so copper is both a rival to sulphur burning and one of its customers; in 2026 an acid shortage became a cost shock for leach mines. - [Copper and Tellurium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-tellurium/): More than 90% of tellurium has come from copper anode slimes, and about 70% of it now goes into cadmium telluride solar panels, so solar growth leans on a by-product of copper refining. - [Copper and Zinc](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-zinc/): Copper and zinc are alloyed together as brass, often mined from the same polymetallic ores, and traded on the same exchanges, giving them the closest price link among copper's partners. - [Cotton and Soybeans](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/cotton-and-soybeans/): Cotton and soybeans compete for the same fields in the US and in central India, but in Brazil most cotton is sown straight after the soybean harvest, and cottonseed meal competes with soybean meal as feed. - [Gallium and Germanium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/gallium-and-germanium/): Gallium and germanium are small by-product metals for chips and optics whose supply is concentrated in China, which has put both under the same export controls since August 2023. - [Germanium and Zinc](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/germanium-and-zinc/): Germanium is recovered from zinc refining residues and from coal ash, so outside China its supply rests on a few zinc operations such as Red Dog and Trail, while China's controls set the world price. - [Gold and Silver](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/gold-and-silver/): Silver trades as the cheaper, more industrial cousin of gold: their prices share the same monetary drivers, part of the world's silver is mined alongside gold, and India is a top buyer of both for jewellery and savings. - [Graphite and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/graphite-and-steel/): Electric arc furnaces melt scrap with synthetic graphite electrodes that burn away at about 1.7 kg per tonne of steel, so electrode demand tracks EAF output rather than steel prices; India's HEG is among the world's largest electrode makers and Graphite India is another major producer. - [Hafnium and Zirconium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/hafnium-and-zirconium/): Hafnium has no ore of its own: it is the impurity stripped out of zirconium to make nuclear-grade metal, so hafnium supply depends on how much dehafniated zirconium the nuclear industry orders. - [Indium and Zinc](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/indium-and-zinc/): Most indium is recovered from residues of zinc smelting, so its supply depends on how much zinc is smelted and where, not on indium's own price; China refined about 70% of it in 2025. - [Iron ore and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/iron-ore-and-steel/): Iron ore exists almost only to make steel: a blast furnace tonne needs about 1.4 tonnes of ore, scrap-based arc furnaces need very little, and India both feeds its own mills and exports low-grade fines mostly to China. - [Lead and Silver](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/lead-and-silver/): Lead-zinc mines are the largest single source of the world's silver, and the silver is recovered in lead smelting and refining, so silver credits often make lead mines pay while lead output decides much silver supply. - [Lead and Zinc](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/lead-and-zinc/): Lead and zinc come out of the same ores and often the same smelters, so their mine supply is linked, but their demand is not: zinc protects steel from rust while lead mostly goes into car batteries. - [Maize and Nitrogen (ammonia)](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/maize-and-nitrogen-ammonia/): Maize is one of the most nitrogen-hungry crops, and fertiliser is the largest direct cost of growing it, so grain prices and nitrogen prices share a yearly cycle driven by planting decisions. - [Maize and Poultry](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/maize-and-poultry/): Feed is the largest cost of raising chickens and maize is most of the feed, so maize prices set poultry margins; in India poultry takes the largest share of maize, now competing with ethanol plants. - [Maize and Soybeans](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/maize-and-soybeans/): Maize and soybeans compete for the same farmland, are grown in rotation, and are fed together as energy and protein, so their prices and acreages move as a pair. - [Maize and Sugar](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/maize-and-sugar/): Maize competes with sugar twice: as high-fructose syrup in US food and drinks, a use now in long decline, and as an ethanol feedstock that is taking share from cane in Brazil and India. - [Maize and Wheat](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/maize-and-wheat/): Maize and wheat compete in animal feed, so when wheat becomes cheap relative to maize it is fed to livestock; that switching, plus shared drivers such as world stocks and the dollar, makes them one of the tightest grain price pairs. - [Molybdenum and Rhenium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/molybdenum-and-rhenium/): Rhenium is caught from the gases given off when molybdenite concentrate is roasted, so its supply is fixed by molybdenum and copper output, while its demand comes from jet-engine superalloys that also use molybdenum. - [Molybdenum and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/molybdenum-and-steel/): Steel is molybdenum's main market: about four-fifths of newly mined molybdenum (2022 data) goes into stainless, alloy and tool steels and cast iron, where it adds strength and corrosion resistance and has few good substitutes. - [Nickel and Palladium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/nickel-and-palladium/): Much of the world's palladium is dug out with nickel and copper at Norilsk in Russia, so palladium supply depends on one nickel miner and on sanctions and trade policy towards Russia, a risk far larger for palladium than for nickel. - [Nickel and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/nickel-and-steel/): Stainless steel takes about two-thirds of the world's nickel, so stainless output in China and Indonesia sets nickel demand, while carbon steel, most of all steel, uses almost none and its price barely tracks nickel. - [Niobium and Tantalum](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/niobium-and-tantalum/): Niobium and tantalum are chemical twins that occur together in nature, most famously in coltan, yet their markets differ: niobium comes mostly from Brazilian pyrochlore and goes into steel, while tantalum comes largely from central African coltan and goes into electronics. - [Palladium and Platinum](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/palladium-and-platinum/): Platinum and palladium are mined together in South Africa and Russia and do the same job in car exhaust catalysts, so carmakers swap between them on price and a shift in either metal's supply or price reaches the other. - [Palm oil and Soybeans](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/palm-oil-and-soybeans/): Palm oil and soybean oil are the two largest edible oils and close substitutes, so palm supply and prices feed into the value of every soybean crushed, and India switches its imports between them on price. - [Palm oil and Sunflower](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/palm-oil-and-sunflower/): Sunflower oil from the Black Sea and palm oil from Southeast Asia compete for India's frying and cooking oil demand, so a supply shock in one, as in 2022, sends buyers to the other and lifts both prices. - [Phosphate rock and Potash](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/phosphate-rock-and-potash/): Phosphate and potash are the P and K of fertiliser: almost all of both goes to farms, neither has a substitute as a plant nutrient, and India buys both mostly from abroad under one subsidy scheme, so their demand and policy move together even though their mines are in different countries. - [Platinum and Rhodium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/platinum-and-rhodium/): Rhodium is a small by-product of the same South African reefs that are mined for platinum and palladium, so its supply follows platinum-group mining decisions rather than its own price, which is why rhodium prices swing far more than platinum's. - [Rare earths and Thorium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/rare-earths-and-thorium/): Monazite, the mineral of India's beach sands, holds both rare earths and thorium, so every tonne of rare earths won from it brings radioactive thorium that must be separated and stored; thorium supply is set by rare-earth demand, and thorium handling in turn limits how fast monazite can be processed. - [Rice and Water](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/rice-and-water/): Paddy rice is one of the thirstiest field crops, using about 30% of the world's irrigation water; in Punjab it has driven groundwater extraction well beyond recharge, and India's rice exports carried about 40 billion m³ of virtual water abroad in 2023-24. - [Steel and Tin](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/steel-and-tin/): Tinplate, thin steel coated with a few grams of tin per square metre, ties the two metals in food and drink cans: it is a sizeable use for tin but a small one for steel, and chromium-coated steel and aluminium are steadily taking its place. - [Steel and Vanadium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/steel-and-vanadium/): Steel is both vanadium's main customer and, in China, its main source: a few hundred grams per tonne strengthens rebar, and most Chinese vanadium is recovered from the slag of iron made from vanadium-bearing ore, so steel output drives demand and supply at once. - [Steel and Zinc](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/steel-and-zinc/): Galvanising, coating steel with zinc so the zinc corrodes first, takes about 60% of the world's zinc, so zinc demand follows output of steel that must resist corrosion, while zinc is a large share of a galvaniser's cost. - [Tantalum and Tin](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/tantalum-and-tin/): Tantalum and tin come out of the same ground and the same furnaces: tin smelter slags are a tantalum source, both are dug by hand in eastern DR Congo and Rwanda, and both fall under the same conflict-minerals rules and electronics supply chains. - [Titanium and Zirconium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/titanium-and-zirconium/): Ilmenite, rutile and zircon are separated from the same heavy mineral sands, so titanium and zirconium supply come from the same mines and countries even though their end markets, white pigment and ceramics, are quite different. ## Commodity and Energy - [AC transmission and Aluminium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ac-transmission-and-aluminium/): Overhead AC lines are strung with aluminium conductors around a steel core, so line building is a large, steady aluminium market; in India the power transmission and distribution sector takes about 48% of aluminium use, and the 2032 grid plan adds to it. - [Aluminium and Energy-intensive industry](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aluminium-and-energy-intensive-industry/): Primary aluminium is one of the most electricity-intensive industrial products, at about 15 MWh per tonne with power typically about 40% of cost, so electricity prices decide where smelters run and when they shut. - [Aluminium and Thermal coal](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aluminium-and-thermal-coal/): Most aluminium in India and China is smelted with coal-fired captive power, so coal sets much of its cost and most of its carbon footprint; that footprint now carries a price at the EU border from 2026. - [Aluminium and Underground, submarine and superconducting cables](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aluminium-and-underground-submarine-and-superconducting-cables/): Buried and subsea power cables need a metal conductor, and aluminium competes with copper for it: aluminium needs a larger cross-section for the same rating but is far lighter and usually much cheaper, so the copper to aluminium price gap decides the choice for many projects. - [Aviation propulsion and Titanium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aviation-propulsion-and-titanium/): Jet engines and airframes are the main market for titanium metal, using it for fan and compressor parts and highly loaded structures, and aerospace-grade supply is concentrated, with Russia's VSMPO-AVISMA still supplying about half of Airbus's needs. - [Biomass and Sugar](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/biomass-and-sugar/): Every 100 tonnes of cane crushed for sugar leaves about 30 tonnes of wet bagasse, which mills burn for their own steam and power and export the surplus, so sugar output sets one of the largest biomass fuel supplies in India and Brazil. - [Cement and Energy-intensive industry](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/cement-and-energy-intensive-industry/): Cement is one of the core energy-intensive industries: its kilns used about 3.6 GJ of heat per tonne of clinker and its mills about 96 kWh of electricity per tonne of cement worldwide in 2012, so fuel and power are among its largest costs and the main target of efficiency policy. - [Coking coal and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/coking-coal-and-steel/): Blast furnace steel needs roughly 800 kg of coal per tonne, most of it as coke, so coking coal demand rises and falls with blast furnace output; India imports about 90 to 95% of its coking coal, with Australia the largest supplier. - [Copper and Distribution grids, mini-grids and interconnectors](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-distribution-grids-mini-grids-and-interconnectors/): Distribution networks are a large copper outlet: copper goes into underground cables, substations, transformer windings and earthing, while aluminium takes most overhead lines. Grid investment, above all in China, was the largest single source of copper demand growth in 2023 and 2024, and programmes such as India's RDSS add to it. - [Copper and Electric and hybrid vehicles](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-electric-and-hybrid-vehicles/): A battery electric car was estimated to use about 83 kg of copper against about 23 kg in a petrol or diesel car (ICA estimate, 2017), in motor windings, battery connections, high-voltage wiring and charging, so each switch to a battery car adds about 60 kg of copper demand. - [Copper and Electric motors and drives](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/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 and Heat pumps, air conditioning and refrigeration](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-heat-pumps-air-conditioning-and-refrigeration/): Air conditioners, heat pumps and fridges move heat through copper tubes and coils and run on copper-wound compressor motors, so copper was put at about 20 to 30% of the cost of making an air conditioner (Chinese estimate, 2021); when copper is dear, makers shift heat exchangers to aluminium. - [Copper and Onshore wind](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-onshore-wind/): An onshore wind farm uses about 2.5 to 7 tonnes of copper per MW, most of it in cables and earthing across the site rather than in the turbines, so the record 155.3 GW of onshore wind added in 2025 was a sizeable copper demand. - [Copper and Solar photovoltaics](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-solar-photovoltaics/): Solar plants use about 2.5 to 7 tonnes of copper per MW, mostly in cabling and earthing, and record silver prices in early 2026 pushed cell makers to start replacing silver contacts with copper, which could make copper a cell material as well. - [Copper and Transformers and power electronics](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-transformers-and-power-electronics/): Large power transformers are wound with copper, and since 2019 a surge in grid and generation demand has pushed US power transformer prices up about 77% and lead times past two years, with copper and electrical steel among the supply constraints. - [Crude oil and Natural rubber](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/crude-oil-and-natural-rubber/): Synthetic rubber, made from oil and gas derived monomers, supplies just over half of the world's rubber, so crude oil sets the price of natural rubber's main alternative; but tyres need both, which keeps substitution limited and the price link partial. - [Crude oil and Palm oil](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/crude-oil-and-palm-oil/): Indonesia blends palm biodiesel into diesel under a mandate funded by export levies, which moved from B40 to B50 from July 2026, so the gap between palm oil and gasoil prices, the POGO spread, decides how costly the mandate is; high oil prices make palm biodiesel competitive and support palm prices. - [Crude oil and Sugar](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/crude-oil-and-sugar/): Brazil's cane mills choose each season how much cane to turn into sugar or ethanol, and ethanol competes with petrol, so oil and petrol prices pull cane away from sugar; in India the government sets ethanol prices, which weakens that market link. - [Electric and hybrid vehicles and Nickel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/electric-and-hybrid-vehicles-and-nickel/): Long-range electric cars mostly run on nickel-rich NMC and NCA batteries, but iron phosphate (LFP) cells made up over 55% of EV batteries worldwide in 2025, so EV growth no longer translates one for one into nickel demand. Stainless steel, not cars, still takes most of the world's nickel. - [Electric motors and drives and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/electric-motors-and-drives-and-steel/): Every electric motor's magnetic core is a stack of thin non-oriented electrical steel, and the quality of that steel sets a large part of the motor's energy losses. It is a specialised grade made by few mills, so its supply and price follow their own cycle rather than the general steel market. - [Graphite and Lithium iron phosphate batteries](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/graphite-and-lithium-iron-phosphate-batteries/): LFP cells, like other lithium-ion cells, store their lithium in a graphite anode, and with LFP at over 55% of EV batteries in 2025 it is now a major call on graphite. Almost all anode material is made in China, which has used export licensing since December 2023, so graphite is the main supply risk in an otherwise abundant LFP chain. - [Hydropower dams and Water](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/hydropower-dams-and-water/): A dam's output is set by how much water reaches its reservoir, so a weak monsoon or a drought cuts generation and forces coal or gas to fill the gap. Reservoirs also lose water to evaporation and share it with irrigation and cities, which ties hydropower to water policy. - [Lead and Lead-acid batteries](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/lead-and-lead-acid-batteries/): Lead-acid batteries take about 85% of the world's refined lead, and the metal is recovered from scrap batteries so efficiently that most refined lead is now recycled. In India much of that recycling is informal, which keeps costs low but exposes workers and children to lead poisoning. - [Lithium iron phosphate batteries and Phosphate rock](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/lithium-iron-phosphate-batteries-and-phosphate-rock/): Every LFP cathode needs purified phosphoric acid made from phosphate rock, so the rise of LFP has created a new, high-purity demand that competes with fertiliser for the best rock. The volumes are still small against fertiliser, but they are concentrated in China, which also mines most phosphate. - [Lithium and Sodium-ion batteries](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/lithium-and-sodium-ion-batteries/): Sodium-ion cells do the same job as lithium-ion cells with sodium, which is about 1,000 times more abundant, so they cap how far lithium prices can rise before buyers switch. Their progress follows the lithium price: investment slowed when lithium fell in 2023, and lithium prices in early 2026 at more than twice their level a year earlier have strengthened their case. - [Natural gas and Nitrogen (ammonia)](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/natural-gas-and-nitrogen-ammonia/): About 72% of the world's ammonia is made from natural gas, which supplies both the hydrogen and the energy, so gas is most of the cost and the marginal producer's gas price sets the ammonia price. When European gas spiked in 2022, half of Europe's ammonia capacity was shut or curtailed, and India's urea plants now depend heavily on imported LNG. - [Natural gas and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/natural-gas-and-steel/): Natural gas can replace coke as the agent that strips oxygen from iron ore, in direct reduced iron (DRI) plants that feed electric furnaces and emit about half the CO2 of a blast furnace. About two thirds of world DRI is gas-based, but India, the largest DRI producer, makes most of its DRI from coal, and the same gas-based shaft furnaces can later switch to hydrogen. - [Natural gas and Sulfur](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/natural-gas-and-sulfur/): Most of the world's sulphur is not mined but removed from sour natural gas and crude oil, so its supply is set by gas processing and refining, not by sulphur prices. Gulf sour gas makes the Middle East a leading exporter, with nearly half of seaborne sulphur trade passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which ties sulphur, and the phosphate fertiliser and nickel leaching that use it, to Gulf gas output and shipping. - [Nickel and Nickel-rich lithium-ion batteries](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/nickel-and-nickel-rich-lithium-ion-batteries/): Nickel-rich cathodes are nickel's fastest-growing market, and the nickel feeding them increasingly comes from Indonesian laterites processed mostly in Chinese-owned plants. Growth depends on how much of the EV market stays with nickel cells rather than nickel-free LFP. - [Nuclear fission reactors and Thorium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/nuclear-fission-reactors-and-thorium/): Thorium cannot run a reactor on its own: it must first be bred into fissile uranium-233 inside a reactor started on uranium or plutonium. That is why it matters most to India, which has large thorium resources and has built its three-stage nuclear programme around reaching it. - [Offshore wind and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/offshore-wind-and-steel/): Offshore wind is built largely of heavy steel plate: monopile foundations alone take around 200 t per MW, and foundations and towers were put at about a quarter of capital cost in 2021. That makes the industry a major plate customer and exposed to steel and supply chain inflation, as the 2023 cancellations showed. - [Soda ash and Sodium-ion batteries](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/soda-ash-and-sodium-ion-batteries/): Sodium-ion batteries take their sodium mainly from sodium carbonate, the chemical sold as soda ash, which is cheap and plentiful, so they appeal as a lithium hedge. Their demand is tiny beside a 71 Mt soda ash market (2025), so the link matters for battery costs, not for soda ash prices. - [Steel and Transformers and power electronics](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/steel-and-transformers-and-power-electronics/): Most transformer cores are built from grain-oriented electrical steel (CRGO or GOES), a speciality grade made by few mills that is about a fifth of a transformer's cost. India imports most of what it uses, so CRGO supply and trade rules directly affect how fast it can expand its grid. ## Commodity and Industry - [Aerospace and defence and Aluminium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aerospace-and-defence-and-aluminium/): Aluminium alloys still make up much of an aircraft, about half of a Boeing 777's structure, but carbon composites are about half of the newer 787, so lighter lithium-bearing alloys and certified supply of high-strength grades decide aluminium's place in aerospace. - [Aerospace and defence and Cobalt](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aerospace-and-defence-and-cobalt/): Cobalt is a small but essential ingredient of jet engine superalloys: aerospace used about 11.5 kt in 2025, a fraction of battery demand, yet about three quarters of mined cobalt comes from Congo, whose export quotas now set availability and price. - [Aerospace and defence and Nickel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aerospace-and-defence-and-nickel/): Nickel-base superalloys make up much of a jet engine's hot section, over half of engine weight with other superalloys, but aerospace takes only a small slice of world nickel, so engine makers buy at prices set by stainless steel and Indonesian supply. - [Aerospace and defence and Rhenium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aerospace-and-defence-and-rhenium/): Rhenium is the few-per-cent addition that lets single-crystal turbine blades survive the hottest part of a jet engine; superalloys take about 80% of supply, but because mined rhenium comes only as a by-product of roasting molybdenum concentrates, world output of about 81 tonnes in 2025 cannot rise quickly when engine demand does. - [Aerospace and defence and Titanium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aerospace-and-defence-and-titanium/): Titanium is above all an aerospace metal: most titanium metal used in the US goes into aerospace, and it is about 15% of a Boeing 787's structure, yet sponge supply is concentrated in China, Japan, Russia and Kazakhstan, and the 2022 break with Russia showed how exposed airframers are. - [Aluminium and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aluminium-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Transport is aluminium's largest market, about 28% of world use in 2025, and electric cars and faster trains raise the metal needed per vehicle, while high-strength steel competes part by part on cost. - [Cobalt and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/cobalt-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Electric vehicle batteries are now the largest use of cobalt, about 43% of demand in 2024, but makers have cut cobalt per kWh through LFP and high-nickel cathodes, so cobalt demand depends on chemistry mix as much as on EV sales, while Congo's export quotas set supply. - [Computers and electronics and Gold](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/computers-and-electronics-and-gold/): Electronics uses only about 5% of the gold bought each year, but chips, contacts and boards rely on it for corrosion-free connections, and discarded phone boards hold hundreds of grams of gold per tonne, making e-waste a second source of the metal. - [Computers and electronics and Silicon](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/computers-and-electronics-and-silicon/): Every chip in a phone, PC or server is built on a silicon wafer, but chips use only a sliver of world silicon output: most silicon metal goes to aluminium alloys and silicones, and the ultra-pure grades for chips and solar are refined from a base that China dominates. - [Construction and infrastructure and Copper](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/construction-and-infrastructure-and-copper/): Buildings are the largest single use of copper, through wiring, plumbing and cooling tube, so construction activity moves copper demand, while plastics and aluminium cap how far copper prices can rise before builders switch. - [Construction and infrastructure and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/construction-and-infrastructure-and-steel/): Construction and infrastructure are India's biggest steel users, about 60% of finished steel in FY26, through rebar in concrete and sections in bridges, towers and frames, so steel prices feed straight into project and housing costs. - [Copper and Data centres and cloud](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-data-centres-and-cloud/): A data centre uses roughly 27 tonnes of copper per megawatt in its power, cooling and server systems, and more again in the grid that feeds it, so AI build-out has become a visible new source of copper demand, though still small next to grids, buildings and vehicles. - [Copper and Electrical equipment](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-electrical-equipment/): Copper is the main conductor in cables, motor and transformer windings and switchgear busbars, and it carries the largest weight in India's power transformer price formula; contract price variation clauses pass copper price moves through to buyers. - [Copper and Telecommunications](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-telecommunications/): Telecom networks were built on copper lines, but optical fibre now replaces copper in access and long-haul networks, so operators are retiring copper while still needing it for power feeds to radio sites and subsea cable repeaters. - [Copper and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): A battery electric car used roughly three to four times the copper of a petrol car in 2017 estimates, in motor windings, battery foils, busbars and wiring, so electrification raises copper demand per vehicle, while high copper prices are pushing carmakers towards aluminium wiring. - [Copper and Waste and recycling](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/copper-and-waste-and-recycling/): Copper can be recycled repeatedly without losing quality, so scrap supplies about a third of world copper use; for recyclers copper is the most valuable metal in cables, motors and e-waste, and for India imported scrap fills the gap between domestic collection and its secondary rod plants. - [Electrical equipment and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/electrical-equipment-and-steel/): Electrical equipment needs ordinary steel for tanks, frames and transmission towers, but its critical link is grain-oriented electrical steel (CRGO) for transformer cores, which India makes in tiny volumes and imports for about 90% of its needs. - [Finance: banking, insurance, markets and Gold](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/finance-banking-insurance-markets-and-gold/): Gold is a financial asset as much as a metal: central banks hold it as reserves, funds hold it for clients, and Indian lenders take it as loan collateral, so the gold price moves reserve values, fund flows and the size of India's gold loan book together. - [Food and beverage processing and Palm oil](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/food-and-beverage-processing-and-palm-oil/): Palm oil is the largest single vegetable oil, about 35% of world demand, and is semi-solid at room temperature, so food makers use it for frying, baking and spreads; India buys it from a market dominated by Indonesia and Malaysia, and Indian buyers switch towards soybean and sunflower oils when palm loses its price edge. - [Food and beverage processing and Sugar](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/food-and-beverage-processing-and-sugar/): Institutional buyers, mainly food and drink makers, took about 60 to 65% of India's sugar in 2023 to 2024, so their input cost is set by a sugar market the government manages through a minimum selling price, export quotas and cane prices, while higher GST on sugared drinks since 2025 pushes the other way. - [Gallium and Telecommunications](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/gallium-and-telecommunications/): Radio equipment for mobile networks relies on gallium compounds, gallium nitride in base station amplifiers and gallium arsenide in handsets, while China produces about 99% of the world's primary gallium and has used export controls on it since 2023. - [Graphite and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/graphite-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Almost every electric vehicle battery uses a graphite anode, and graphite is the largest material in a lithium-ion cell by weight, while China makes over 95% of battery-grade graphite and has licensed its exports since December 2023, so anode supply is a direct risk for carmakers. - [Helium and Semiconductors](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/helium-and-semiconductors/): Chip fabs are the largest users of helium, about 20 to 25% of world use, for wafer cooling and lithography, and about a third of supply came from Qatar, so the halt of Qatari output from March 2026, only partly reversed by late 2026, put Korean and Taiwanese fabs on rationed supply even though helium is a tiny share of wafer cost. - [Lithium and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/lithium-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Batteries take about 88% of the world's lithium and electric cars take most battery output, so EV sales now set lithium demand and its price cycle, which swung from an eightfold rise in 2021 to 2022 to a fall of over 80% between 2023 and early 2025. - [Machinery and equipment and Steel](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/machinery-and-equipment-and-steel/): Machinery relies heavily on steel, from tractor chassis to bearings and motor laminations, and took about 16% of the world's steel in 2019, so steel prices and India's steel import duties feed straight into machinery makers' costs and margins. - [Manganese and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/manganese-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Vehicles take manganese two ways: inside the steel of every car, ship and rail wagon, as steel takes about 90% of manganese, and in a small but growing amount used in battery cathodes, where the high-purity sulphate comes almost entirely from China. - [Natural rubber and Plastic and rubber products](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/natural-rubber-and-plastic-and-rubber-products/): Tyres and other vehicle parts take about 70% of India's natural rubber, but India grows only about 62% of what it uses, mostly in Kerala, so tyre makers import the gap from Southeast Asia and West Africa and back new planting in the North East. - [Nickel and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/nickel-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Vehicles use nickel in two very different ways: in nickel-rich NMC and NCA battery cathodes, and in stainless steels and superalloys for engines, ships and aircraft. Battery demand for nickel has grown fast but is held back by the spread of nickel-free LFP cells, and most new nickel now comes from Indonesia. - [Rare earths and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/rare-earths-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Most electric cars, and many ships, aircraft and weapons, run on neodymium magnets whose heavy rare earths China separates almost alone, so Chinese export licensing can stop vehicle lines within weeks. - [Semiconductors and Tantalum](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/semiconductors-and-tantalum/): Chipmakers sputter tantalum into thin conductive and barrier layers, and the metal comes largely from conflict-affected central Africa, so a small input carries outsized sourcing and due-diligence risk. - [Semiconductors and Water](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/semiconductors-and-water/): Chip fabs rinse wafers repeatedly with ultrapure water, so a large fab draws millions of gallons a day and cannot run if supply fails. Where fabs are built, and how much water they recycle, is now a siting decision alongside power and skills. - [Steel and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/steel-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Steel makes up most of a car's body and chassis and the hulls of ships and bogies of trains, so vehicle makers are among the largest buyers of flat and plate steel. The contest is now over grade and carbon: thinner high-strength steel against aluminium, and low-carbon steel at a premium. - [Textiles and leather and Water](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/textiles-and-leather-and-water/): Textiles and leather use water at every stage, from irrigating cotton to dye baths and hide soaking, and return it loaded with dyes, salts and chemicals. In India, court-enforced zero liquid discharge in Tiruppur and the tanning clusters turned effluent rules into a cost and siting factor for the whole chain. - [Timber and Wood products](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/timber-and-wood-products/): Timber is the raw material of the wood products industry: logs become sawnwood, veneer, plywood and panels. In India the chain runs mostly on farm-grown poplar, eucalyptus and other short-rotation trees, because forest policy restricts harvest from natural forests, and rising demand is increasingly met by imports. - [Water and Water and sanitation](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/water-and-water-and-sanitation/): Raw water is the resource that water and sanitation utilities abstract, treat, deliver and then collect back as sewage. In India the system is being expanded fast through the Jal Jeevan Mission, but it rests on groundwater that is over-drawn in many areas and on tariffs that rarely cover costs. ## Energy and Energy - [AC transmission and HVDC links](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ac-transmission-and-hvdc-links/): HVDC and AC lines both move bulk power, but DC wins beyond a break-even distance of roughly 300 to 800 km overhead or 50 to 100 km of cable; every DC link starts and ends in an AC grid, so the two are rivals on long routes and partners everywhere else. - [AC transmission and Lithium iron phosphate batteries](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ac-transmission-and-lithium-iron-phosphate-batteries/): Grid batteries, now mostly LFP, charge from the transmission grid when power is cheap and feed it back at the evening peak, and India is pushing them with viability gap funding and transmission charge waivers that treat storage as part of the grid. - [AC transmission and Pumped hydro storage](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ac-transmission-and-pumped-hydro-storage/): Pumped storage plants are the grid's oldest form of large-scale storage: they pump water uphill with surplus grid power and return it at peaks, and India is building a pipeline of them, about 7.4 GW running and 15.9 GW under construction in 2026, to balance solar. - [AC transmission and Transformers and power electronics](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ac-transmission-and-transformers-and-power-electronics/): Every AC line begins and ends at a transformer, so transformer supply now limits how fast grids can grow: prices rose about 75% since 2019 and large units take up to four years, and India missed its 2025-26 substation target by about 10%. - [Coal mining and Coking coal](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/coal-mining-and-coking-coal/): Coking coal is the premium product of coal mining, dug from specific seams and washed to steelmaking grade; India mines about 67 Mt but its coal is high in ash, so it imports about 90% of its metallurgical coal and is pushing to reach 140 Mt of domestic output by 2030. - [Coal mining and Thermal coal](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/coal-mining-and-thermal-coal/): Thermal coal is what most coal mines sell, so mine output and power station demand move together. In India the link runs through Coal India, which mined about 74% of the country's coal in 2024-25 and sells most of it to power plants on long contracts at prices set at home rather than by the seaborne market. - [Coal transport and Thermal coal](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/coal-transport-and-thermal-coal/): Thermal coal is heavy and cheap per tonne, so moving it can cost nearly as much as the coal itself: Coal India said in 2020 that rail freight was about 40 to 45% of the landed cost at the plant. That makes rail capacity, freight tariffs and loading infrastructure as important to coal supply as mine output. - [Coking coal and Thermal coal](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/coking-coal-and-thermal-coal/): Coking and thermal coal come from the same basins and sometimes the same mines, and the lower grades of metallurgical coal (semi-soft and PCI) can be sold either to steelmakers or to power stations. That makes the price gap between the two the thing to watch: it normally favours coking coal, but it inverted in mid-2022 and miners switched coal to the thermal market. - [Combustion road vehicles and Crude oil](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/combustion-road-vehicles-and-crude-oil/): Road engines burn close to half of the world's oil, so the size and fuel efficiency of the combustion fleet is the largest single driver of crude demand. Electric vehicles displaced about 1.7 mb/d in 2025 and the IEA expects about 5 mb/d by 2030, while India adds more new oil demand to 2030 than any other country, led by transport fuels. - [Conventional oil and gas production and Natural gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/conventional-oil-and-gas-production-and-natural-gas/): Most of the world's gas comes from conventional fields, either gas reservoirs or as associated gas produced alongside oil. Associated gas ties gas supply to oil drilling, and where there is no pipeline or market it is flared: 167 bcm in 2025. In India the link is written into policy, with domestic gas from old fields priced at 10% of the crude basket within a floor and cap. - [Crude oil and Fuel stocks and strategic reserves](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/crude-oil-and-fuel-stocks-and-strategic-reserves/): Strategic reserves are crude held back for emergencies, so they are worth what crude is worth and matter most when supply breaks. IEA members must hold 90 days of net imports and in March 2026 agreed their largest ever release, 400 million barrels; India's caverns hold 5.33 Mt, about 9.5 days of need, within some 74 days of total cover. - [Crude oil and Refining and reforming](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/crude-oil-and-refining-and-reforming/): Refineries are crude's customer and crude is their largest cost, so product prices track crude closely and refiners live on the gap between them, the crack spread. In 2026 that gap blew out, with the US Gulf Coast diesel crack above USD 100 a barrel, while India, which imports about 90% of its crude, is one of the world's large product exporters. - [Crude oil and Tankers, barges and fuel trucks](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/crude-oil-and-tankers-barges-and-fuel-trucks/): About three-quarters of the world's oil travels by sea, so tanker capacity, chokepoints and sanctions decide how much a barrel costs on arrival. When routes lengthen or close, freight can rise from about USD 2 a barrel to several times that within weeks. - [Crude oil and Unconventional oil and gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/crude-oil-and-unconventional-oil-and-gas/): Shale and other unconventional oil is crude sold into the same market, but its output would fall by more than 35% within a year if drilling stopped, so it depends on continuous drilling and responds to price within months. US tight oil made the United States the largest producer, at a record 13.6 mb/d in 2025, and new-well breakevens of about USD 61 to 70 a barrel in 2025 mark the price range where US supply growth starts or stalls. - [Data centres and Heat pumps, air conditioning and refrigeration](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/data-centres-and-heat-pumps-air-conditioning-and-refrigeration/): Almost every watt a server draws becomes heat, so cooling machinery (chillers, compressors and air handlers) uses a large share of a data centre's power: 30 to 55% of energy by some estimates. As data centre demand heads towards about 945 TWh by 2030, cooling efficiency and the reuse of waste heat through heat pumps become central to both industries. - [Data centres and Transformers and power electronics](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/data-centres-and-transformers-and-power-electronics/): Every data centre sits behind a chain of transformers, switchgear, uninterruptible power supplies and converters, so its build-out competes with utilities for the same scarce equipment. US power transformer supply fell about 30% short of demand in 2025, with lead times of up to four years, and AI racks are now pushing a shift to 800 V DC power distribution. - [Electric and hybrid vehicles and Lithium iron phosphate batteries](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/electric-and-hybrid-vehicles-and-lithium-iron-phosphate-batteries/): LFP became the most used EV battery chemistry in 2025 because it is the cheapest per kWh, which is what makes low-priced electric cars possible. Almost all of it is made in China, so EV growth in other countries leans on Chinese cells and cathodes. - [Electric and hybrid vehicles and Nickel-rich lithium-ion batteries](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/electric-and-hybrid-vehicles-and-nickel-rich-lithium-ion-batteries/): Nickel-rich NMC cells store more energy per kilogram, so they remain the choice for long-range and premium EVs, especially outside China. They cost more per kWh than LFP, and their global share is shrinking as cheaper models switch chemistry. - [Energy in buildings and Heat pumps, air conditioning and refrigeration](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/energy-in-buildings-and-heat-pumps-air-conditioning-and-refrigeration/): Heat pumps, air conditioners and fridges are how buildings turn electricity into heating and cooling, and cooling is now a main driver of electricity peaks in hot countries such as India. The efficiency of the machines sold today largely decides future building power demand. - [Gas pipelines and city gas and LNG chain](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/gas-pipelines-and-city-gas-and-lng-chain/): In India, about half the gas consumed arrives as LNG, and regasified LNG only reaches users if the pipeline grid connects the coastal terminal to them. Terminal capacity and pipeline reach therefore have to grow together, with city gas a fast-growing customer. - [Gas turbines and combined cycle and Natural gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/gas-turbines-and-combined-cycle-and-natural-gas/): Gas turbines are the main way gas becomes electricity, so their fleet size and running hours set the power sector's gas burn. Where gas is expensive, as in India, plants sit idle and serve only peaks; where power demand surges, as with data centres, turbine orders run years ahead of supply. - [LNG chain and Natural gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/lng-chain-and-natural-gas/): LNG is how natural gas crosses oceans, and it now links regional gas markets that pipelines kept apart. Contract formulas tied to oil or to US Henry Hub, plus spot cargoes priced on JKM, decide what importers such as India pay. - [Lithium iron phosphate batteries and Nickel-rich lithium-ion batteries](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/lithium-iron-phosphate-batteries-and-nickel-rich-lithium-ion-batteries/): LFP and NMC are the two main lithium-ion chemistries and compete for every EV and storage project: LFP is cheaper and longer lived, NMC stores more energy per kilogram. LFP passed half of EV batteries in 2024 and over 55% in 2025, while NMC holds premium cars and most markets outside China. - [Lithium iron phosphate batteries and Sodium-ion batteries](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/lithium-iron-phosphate-batteries-and-sodium-ion-batteries/): Sodium-ion cells aim at the same low-cost uses as LFP, storage and small EVs, without needing lithium. Whether they win depends on the lithium price: at the low prices of 2024 and 2025 LFP was very hard to undercut, and the sharp rise in lithium prices in 2026 has improved sodium's case. - [Natural gas and Unconventional oil and gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/natural-gas-and-unconventional-oil-and-gas/): Shale and tight formations now supply most US gas, which turned the United States into a net exporter and the world's largest LNG seller. Through LNG, the cost of US shale gas plus liquefaction has become a reference point for gas prices in Europe and Asia. - [Nuclear fission reactors and Uranium](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/nuclear-fission-reactors-and-uranium/): Uranium is the fuel of almost all fission reactors, but it is a small part of the cost of nuclear power, so reactors keep running through uranium price swings. The risk lies in concentrated supply: Kazakhstan for mining, and Russia for conversion and enrichment. - [Offshore wind and Underground, submarine and superconducting cables](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/offshore-wind-and-underground-submarine-and-superconducting-cables/): Every megawatt-hour from an offshore wind farm reaches land through subsea export cables, so a few cable makers with factories booked into the late 2020s, and the risk of a single cable fault, set how fast and how reliably offshore wind can grow. - [Solar photovoltaics and Thermal coal](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/solar-photovoltaics-and-thermal-coal/): Solar and coal compete to supply the same grids: solar met 75% of world demand growth in 2025 while coal output fell, and in India cheap solar now takes coal's daytime hours while coal is kept for evenings, so solar's growth squeezes how much each coal plant runs. - [Steam turbines and thermal power plants and Thermal coal](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/steam-turbines-and-thermal-power-plants-and-thermal-coal/): Thermal coal is the fuel and steam turbine plants are the machines that turn it into most of India's electricity: at CEA's normative heat rates an older Indian unit burns roughly 0.6 to 0.7 kg of domestic coal per kWh, so coal demand moves with plant load factor, while turbine orders follow state planning rather than coal prices. ## Energy and Industry - [AC transmission and Data centres and cloud](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ac-transmission-and-data-centres-and-cloud/): Large data centre campuses now ask for 100 MW to 1 GW each and must be connected to the high-voltage AC grid, so the pace of transmission and substation build, not servers or capital, sets how fast they can open; in Northern Virginia waits for big connections reached up to seven years in 2024. - [AI and digital platforms and Data centres](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ai-and-digital-platforms-and-data-centres/): AI models are trained and served in data centres, so AI spending turns directly into electricity demand: data centre use grew 17% in 2025 and the IEA expects it to double by 2030, with grid connections and power equipment now the binding constraint. - [AI and digital platforms and Distribution grids, mini-grids and interconnectors](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ai-and-digital-platforms-and-distribution-grids-mini-grids-and-interconnectors/): AI adds large, concentrated electric loads, from chip fabs to data centres, that local networks must connect and supply without interruption; transformer shortages and slow connections make the grid, not demand, the pacing factor. - [Aerospace and defence and Aviation propulsion](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aerospace-and-defence-and-aviation-propulsion/): No aircraft, civil or military, can be delivered without its engines, and engine output is now the tightest constraint on the industry; India still flies every fighter on a foreign engine and is trying to change that through the Safran co-development for AMCA. - [Aviation propulsion and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aviation-propulsion-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Aircraft builders cannot deliver without engines, and narrowbody engines come from very few suppliers, mainly CFM and Pratt & Whitney, so engine output and engine faults now set how many aircraft reach airlines. - [Building materials and Energy-intensive industry](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/building-materials-and-energy-intensive-industry/): Cement and glass are energy-intensive industries in their own right: kiln and furnace heat is most of their energy use and energy is about 30% of cement manufacturing cost, so fuel prices move their margins directly. - [Building materials and Natural gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/building-materials-and-natural-gas/): Gas is the kiln and furnace fuel for tiles and glass, over 30% of ceramic input costs at Morbi in 2022, so a gas shock, such as the 2026 Hormuz disruption that shut most Morbi kilns for about six weeks, hits output and prices at once. - [Construction and infrastructure and Crude oil](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/construction-and-infrastructure-and-crude-oil/): Road building runs on two crude oil products, bitumen for the surface and diesel for the machines, so crude price shocks raise highway costs; India now shares that risk with contractors through escalation compensation. - [Crude oil and Public administration, defence and security](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/crude-oil-and-public-administration-defence-and-security/): Governments both burn oil, above all in their armed forces, and live off it: India's petroleum sector paid about ₹7.58 lakh crore to central and state exchequers in 2024-25, so an oil shock hits public budgets through tax cuts, state oil company losses and defence fuel bills at once. - [Crude oil and Textiles and leather](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/crude-oil-and-textiles-and-leather/): Polyester, made from oil-derived PTA and MEG, was 59% of the world's fibre in 2024, so crude prices feed straight into the cost of most textiles and decide how cheap synthetic fibre is against cotton. - [Crude oil and Transport and logistics](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/crude-oil-and-transport-and-logistics/): Fuel is the largest single cost in moving goods, 42.1% of road freight expenses in India and 31.4% of airline costs forecast for 2026, so crude prices pass quickly into freight rates through surcharges and squeeze carriers' margins when they cannot. - [Data centres and cloud and Natural gas](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/data-centres-and-cloud-and-natural-gas/): Gas is the largest single source of power for US data centres and the IEA expects it to supply the biggest share of their added demand to 2030, so the AI build-out has become a new source of US gas demand and a new buyer of scarce gas turbines. - [Data centres and cloud and Solar photovoltaics](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/data-centres-and-cloud-and-solar-photovoltaics/): Cloud and AI firms are the largest corporate buyers of renewable power, and solar is a main part of what they contract, but solar output peaks at midday while data centres run all day, so the pair is tied by contracts and by the need for storage or firm power alongside. - [Data centres and Semiconductors](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/data-centres-and-semiconductors/): Data centres now bring in about nine-tenths of the leading AI chip designer's revenue and over half of the leading foundry's, and each new generation of AI accelerator packs more power into a rack, so chip roadmaps set data centre power and cooling needs while chip designers themselves rely on large compute farms. - [Distribution grids, mini-grids and interconnectors and Electrical equipment](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/distribution-grids-mini-grids-and-interconnectors-and-electrical-equipment/): Distribution grids are among the largest buyers of transformers, switchgear, cables and meters, so grid spending programmes such as India's RDSS translate directly into order books for electrical equipment makers, while those makers in turn run on grid power. - [Electric motors and drives and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/electric-motors-and-drives-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Electric vehicles move on traction motors, and most of those motors use rare-earth permanent magnets made almost entirely in China, so the motor is where the vehicle industry's exposure to magnet supply sits, as 2025's export curbs showed. - [Electric motors and drives and Water and sanitation](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/electric-motors-and-drives-and-water-and-sanitation/): Water and sewage services are mostly a matter of moving water uphill and through pipes, so motor-driven pumps and blowers use most of a utility's electricity, and efficient motors and drives are the main lever on its energy bill. - [Food and beverage processing and Heat pumps, air conditioning and refrigeration](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/food-and-beverage-processing-and-heat-pumps-air-conditioning-and-refrigeration/): Refrigeration is what lets perishable food be stored, processed and shipped, so the food industry is a major user of compressor cooling, and the same compressor technology, run as a heat pump, is becoming a way to supply the low-temperature process heat that food plants use. - [Lithium iron phosphate batteries and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/lithium-iron-phosphate-batteries-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Lithium iron phosphate has become the main battery chemistry for electric vehicles, over 55% of EV batteries deployed in 2025, because it is much cheaper than nickel-based cells, but its supply chain is almost entirely Chinese, which shapes where affordable EVs are built. - [Natural gas and Textiles and leather](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/natural-gas-and-textiles-and-leather/): Textile dyeing, printing and finishing need large amounts of low-temperature heat, and in clusters such as Surat much of it comes from piped gas, so gas prices and supply shocks pass quickly into processing charges, and high gas prices push units back to coal. - [Natural gas and Transport and logistics](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/natural-gas-and-transport-and-logistics/): Gas enters transport as compressed gas for cars, autos, buses and light trucks and as LNG for heavy trucks and ships; India has built a large CNG network and plans LNG trucking, but in China, the largest LNG truck market, battery trucks are now taking share from gas. - [Nickel-rich lithium-ion batteries and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/nickel-rich-lithium-ion-batteries-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Nickel-rich cells are the battery of choice for long-range and premium electric cars, and almost 80% of EV batteries outside China still used nickel chemistries in 2025, but cheaper LFP now takes over half of the world market, so carmakers' chemistry choices decide nickel and cobalt demand. - [Rail traction and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/rail-traction-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Rail traction is what rolling-stock builders sell: locomotives and trainsets with their motors, transformers and converters. In India, near-complete electrification of the network has turned locomotive demand almost entirely electric and pulled Siemens and Alstom into large localised factories. - [Semiconductors and Transformers and power electronics](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/semiconductors-and-transformers-and-power-electronics/): Power chips, silicon IGBTs and MOSFETs and newer silicon carbide devices, are the switches inside every inverter, drive and charger, so the power electronics build-out for EVs, solar and data centres is a demand driver for a distinct part of the chip industry; in return, chip fabs depend on precision power supplies to run their tools. - [Ship propulsion and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ship-propulsion-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Engines and propulsion are the core bought-in system of every ship a yard builds, so fuel rules decide what shipbuilders install; with 91% of 2025 tonnage built in China, Korea and Japan and the IMO's net-zero rules still not adopted, India is using a ₹69,725 crore package to win a share of the build. ## Industry and Industry - [AI and digital platforms and Data centres and cloud](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ai-and-digital-platforms-and-data-centres-and-cloud/): AI models are trained and served in data centres, so AI spending turns directly into data-centre construction and power demand: five large tech firms spent over USD 400 billion of capex in 2025, data-centre electricity use rose 17%, and power and equipment are now the bottleneck. - [AI and digital platforms and Software and IT services](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/ai-and-digital-platforms-and-software-and-it-services/): AI platforms buy software and engineering from IT firms, and IT firms resell and integrate AI for clients, but the same models can automate coding and process work; for India, whose tech industry was expected to earn about USD 315 billion in FY26 with USD 246 billion from exports, AI is both a new revenue line and a threat to the old one. - [Aerospace and defence and Public administration, defence and security](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aerospace-and-defence-and-public-administration-defence-and-security/): Governments are the defence industry's customer, regulator and often owner: world military spending reached about USD 2.9 trillion in 2025, and in India about 75% of the defence capital acquisition budget is reserved for domestic industry, so budgets and procurement rules set the industry's order book. - [Aerospace and defence and Vehicles, ships, rail, aircraft](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/aerospace-and-defence-and-vehicles-ships-rail-aircraft/): Aircraft, warships and armoured vehicles sit in both industries, so the two share factories, suppliers and bottlenecks: aerospace and defence spends about ₹38.8 of each ₹100 of output with the vehicles industry, and engine and parts shortages have left a backlog above 17,000 aircraft. - [Apparel and footwear and Textiles and leather](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/apparel-and-footwear-and-textiles-and-leather/): Garments and shoes are cut and sewn from fabric and leather, so the textile mills are the apparel industry's main supplier: about ₹34 of every ₹100 of Indian apparel output goes to textiles and leather, and both sides share the same export markets, US tariff risk and government schemes. - [Building materials and Construction and infrastructure](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/building-materials-and-construction-and-infrastructure/): Construction is the market for cement, concrete, bricks and glass, so building material makers live on the building cycle: housing takes about 69% of India's cement and infrastructure about 21%, and building material prices follow construction activity with a lag of about a quarter. - [Computers and electronics and Semiconductors](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/computers-and-electronics-and-semiconductors/): Chips are the largest single input to phones, PCs and servers, and those devices in turn buy most of the world's chips. A swing in chip prices, above all memory, moves device costs within a quarter, and India's push to assemble devices under PLI is now being followed by subsidies to make the chips themselves. - [Computers and electronics and Waste and recycling](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/computers-and-electronics-and-waste-and-recycling/): Discarded phones, computers and screens are the feedstock for e-waste recyclers, and India's extended producer responsibility rules make electronics brands pay recyclers to take them back. The money link is small in input-output terms, but the rules, the certificate price and the metal content of circuit boards decide whether formal recycling can outbid the informal trade. - [Construction and infrastructure and Public administration, defence and security](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/construction-and-infrastructure-and-public-administration-defence-and-security/): Government is construction's largest client: it plans, funds and approves most roads, railways, water networks and military works, so public capital budgets set much of the order book. The reverse flow is small, but permits, land and payment discipline from public agencies decide how fast that order book turns into revenue. - [Construction and infrastructure and Water and sanitation](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/construction-and-infrastructure-and-water-and-sanitation/): Water and sanitation is one of the most construction-heavy services: dams, canals, pipelines and treatment plants are civil works, so water programmes turn directly into contractor orders. In India the Jal Jeevan Mission and AMRUT 2.0 make water one of the larger public construction programmes, and the challenge is shifting from building to running what was built. - [Data centres and cloud and Semiconductors](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/data-centres-and-cloud-and-semiconductors/): Data-centre spending on AI is now the main engine of the chip industry: accelerators, server processors and high-bandwidth memory make up most of what goes into new AI halls. The tie runs both ways, since chip designers rent cloud compute for design runs, but the dominant risk is the capex cycle: if hyperscalers slow spending, chip sales fall with it. - [Data centres and cloud and Software and IT services](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/data-centres-and-cloud-and-software-and-it-services/): Cloud platforms and software are two layers of the same stack: software firms rent compute from cloud providers, and cloud providers buy and build vast amounts of software to run it. For India's IT services firms, cloud migration and AI work on the hyperscalers' platforms are a main source of growth, and some, like TCS, are now building data centres themselves. - [Data centres and cloud and Telecommunications](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/data-centres-and-cloud-and-telecommunications/): Data centres are only useful when they are connected, so they cluster where fibre and subsea cables land, and cloud and content firms now generate most international traffic. Telecom operators in turn run their core networks and IT in data centres. In India the same few coastal hubs, Mumbai and Chennai, hold both the cable landings and most data-centre capacity, which concentrates risk. - [E-commerce and digital marketplaces and Household and personal care](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/e-commerce-and-digital-marketplaces-and-household-and-personal-care/): Online marketplaces and quick-commerce apps have become a fast-growing route to market for soaps, shampoos, detergents and skin care in Indian cities. Quick commerce now makes up most online FMCG sales and a large slice of metro sales, so brands are reshaping packs, pricing and distribution around a few platforms while still relying on kiranas for most volume. - [Electrical equipment and Metal products](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/electrical-equipment-and-metal-products/): Transformers, switchgear and motors are largely shaped metal: tanks, cores, enclosures, frames and windings. Metal inputs are the biggest part of their cost, so electrical equipment prices follow metal product prices closely over a year, and India's near-total reliance on imported transformer steel is a constraint on its grid build-out. - [Electrical equipment and Semiconductors](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/electrical-equipment-and-semiconductors/): Modern electrical equipment is controlled by chips: power semiconductors switch the current in inverters, drives and chargers, and microcontrollers run meters, breakers and protection relays. The 2021 chip shortage showed that a missing chip worth a few dollars can hold up delivery of switchgear and drives, while chip fabs in turn depend on precise power and control equipment. - [Finance: banking, insurance, markets and Real estate](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/finance-banking-insurance-markets-and-real-estate/): Real estate runs on borrowed money and finance runs on property collateral: home loans were about a sixth of Indian bank credit in FY25, so property prices and RBI risk weights feed straight into bank capital and lending. - [Finance: banking, insurance, markets and Software and IT services](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/finance-banking-insurance-markets-and-software-and-it-services/): Banks, insurers and payment systems run on software, and they are in turn the largest client group of India's IT firms: banking, financial services and insurance were about a third of TCS revenue in Q2 FY26, while a single vendor failure in 2024 cut off payments at hundreds of small banks. - [Food and beverage processing and Hospitality and tourism](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/food-and-beverage-processing-and-hospitality-and-tourism/): Processed food and drink are a major purchased input of hotels and restaurants, about ₹22 of every ₹100 of their output, and food service is a growing sales channel for processors; GST changes in September 2025 cut taxes on both sides of the link. - [Food and beverage processing and Wholesale and retail trade](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/food-and-beverage-processing-and-wholesale-and-retail-trade/): Distribution is food processors' route to the consumer and one of their largest costs, about ₹13 of every ₹100 of output; kiranas still carry most of it, but quick commerce is taking share in big cities and squeezing traditional distributors. - [Healthcare services and Medical devices](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/healthcare-services-and-medical-devices/): Hospitals and diagnostic centres are the buyers of medical devices, and about 70% of India's device market is met by imports (2024 assessment); price caps on stents and state support for device parks are the two policy levers on this link. - [Healthcare services and Pharmaceuticals](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/healthcare-services-and-pharmaceuticals/): Medicines took about a fifth of India's current health expenditure in 2022-23, and households still paid 43.4% of total health spending out of pocket; price ceilings and cheap generics are how the state tries to cut the medicine bill. - [Machinery and equipment and Metal products](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/machinery-and-equipment-and-metal-products/): Machines are built from castings, forgings and fabricated parts, about ₹8 of every ₹100 of machinery output, and the foundries and forge shops that make them in turn buy machine tools; prices of the two move closely over a year. - [Machinery and equipment and Semiconductors](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/machinery-and-equipment-and-semiconductors/): Chipmaking depends on a few makers of fab tools, and those tools are now a target of export controls; in the other direction, machines from CNC lathes to pumps need power and control chips, so each industry is a supplier to the other. - [Metal products and Waste and recycling](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/metal-products-and-waste-and-recycling/): Scrap closes the metal loop: mills and foundries melt it, and worn-out metal products become the next supply. India uses about 41 Mt of ferrous scrap a year but imported about 9 Mt in FY25, and its low-carbon steel plans need far more. - [Paper and packaging and Plastic and rubber products](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/paper-and-packaging-and-plastic-and-rubber-products/): Paper and plastic compete for the same packaging jobs and are also combined in laminates and cartons; India's 2022 ban on many single-use plastic items pushed brand owners towards paper, and prices of the two industries move closely together. - [Paper and packaging and Waste and recycling](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/paper-and-packaging-and-waste-and-recycling/): Used cartons and paper collected by the waste trade are the main fibre for Indian paper mills, which make about three quarters of their output from recycled fibre. Because only about 57% of used paper is recovered at home, mills also import millions of tonnes of waste paper a year, so domestic collection and foreign export rules both shape mill costs. - [Paper and packaging and Wood products](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/paper-and-packaging-and-wood-products/): Indian paper mills and plywood and MDF makers draw on the same farm-grown eucalyptus and other plantation wood, so they compete for logs as well as trading with each other. A plantation gap after the 2020 to 2021 lockdowns nearly doubled wood prices, and wood is now about half of an integrated mill's production cost. - [Plastic and rubber products and Waste and recycling](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/plastic-and-rubber-products-and-waste-and-recycling/): Plastic packaging and tyres end up as waste that recyclers turn back into resin, crumb rubber and fuel, and India's extended producer responsibility rules make producers pay for that recycling and, from 2025-26, use recycled plastic in their packaging. The rules turn a weak market link into a regulated one, but fake recycling certificates show that enforcement is the weak point. - [Software and IT services and Telecommunications](https://www.materialinsights.org/links/software-and-it-services-and-telecommunications/): Modern telecom networks run on software, from billing and network management to virtualised cores and radio, so operators are large buyers of software and IT services, while cloud and software firms depend on telecom fibre and backbone links. In India the tie is unusually close: telecom is a core client vertical for IT exporters, and TCS led the build of BSNL's homegrown 4G network.