Fig. 1: Global material flows along the supply chain.

Data from 2017¹⁵⁰ are shown for iron and steel¹⁵¹ (a), aluminium¹⁵⁰ (b), nickel⁴⁴ (c) and titanium⁴⁶ (d). The width of the flows corresponds to mass at each stage including metal loss (not to scale). The inset charts show dominant end uses for these materials. This excludes use of titanium in the pigment sector (at present the largest sector at around 90%) because our emphasis is on metals.