Raw material prices in a dive: Bavaria has to act now!

Raw material prices in a dive: Bavaria has to act now!

In April 2025 there was a noticeable relief on the raw material market: the VBW Rohstoffreisindex decreased by 7.3 percent compared to the previous month. Despite these declines, the index is still 31.9 percent above the average of the pre-Corona year 2019. However, price development is under the influence of different global factors that offer both opportunities and challenges.

A crucial cause of the declining prices are the geopolitical uncertainties that strongly influence the global raw material market, such as Magazin Welt . Conflicts such as the Russian-Ukrainian War drove energy prices up and affected the cereal supply. This illustrates how crisis -sensitive raw material markets are and what difficulties they experience through sanctions and political instability.

price development in detail

In April 2025, the prices for industrial metals recorded an average of 6.9 percent. Aluminum fell by 10.5 percent, copper by 5.5 percent and steel scrap by 3.7 percent. The development of important raw materials such as chrome and titanium is less gratifying, the prices of which rose by 12.7 and 11.5 percent each. Rare earths such as terbium, yttrium and gadolinium also show a slight price increase of 0.5 percent.

In the area of ​​precious metals, prices rose by 2.6 percent, with gold becoming a whopping 7.9 percent more expensive. This could indicate that the precious metal is perceived as a safe harbor in uncertain times. At the same time, the prices for silver and platinum fell by 2.9 and 2.1 percent.

The economic framework conditions

A central factor for the development of the raw material market are the global and geopolitical risks that are included in prize training according to magazin world . This includes not only conflicts and sanctions, but also the unstable weather conditions that influence the harvest yields. More and more companies are forced to adapt their strategies and to invest in more resilient supply chains in order to meet the challenges of raw material shortage.

In addition, the VBW (Association of the Bavarian Economy) calls for quick measures to strengthen raw materials security in Bavaria. It is important to fix structural location weaknesses and to facilitate domestic raw material extraction. A strong network of international trade and raw material partnerships is also crucial to minimize the effects of geopolitical uncertainties.

Overall, it can be seen that despite the declines on the raw material market, there is a certain balance, which must be promoted by constant surveillance and strategic action by companies and politics. The next few months could be groundbreaking for whether Bavaria can reduce its raw material dependency and remain stable in the long term.