North America Metals & Mining: Round Two – Adding Weight to Our Metals Coverage

Barclays initiates coverage of 7 companies in the North America Metals & Mining sector, expanding its coverage universe to 21 stocks across the base metals, precious metals, steel, uranium, and rare earth industries. Within this launch, it focuses primarily on the aluminum industry, initiating coverage on Alcoa (AA), Century Aluminum (CENX), Constellium (CSTM), and Kaiser Aluminum (KALU), and expands copper coverage with Capstone Copper (CS CN) and steel coverage with AZZ Inc. (AZZ) and Reliance (RS). Two names are initiated at Overweight (AA and KALU), with the rest at Equal Weight. The two primary themes driving commodity prices are the rise in transformative technology and the rise of resource nationalism. Copper remains the most preferred industry, with a sector pecking order of Copper, Aluminum, Steel, Gold, Rare Earths, and Uranium, and top stock ideas of FCX, Nucor (NUE), Alcoa, and NEM. The firm is constructive on aluminum near term, expecting a tight global market through 2026