The US military has an aluminum problem. It arises not from the metal’s rarity, but its presence everywhere. Common materials create the most dangerous chokepoints because they are required in immense volumes across multiple sectors at once. The economic and military importance of aluminum is due to the unique combination of scale, conductivity, and light

Written as a perspective on the US, but it is globally relevant in my opinion.

More than five million metric tons of aluminum move through the Strait of Hormuz annually. When a market with low inventories and concentrated export hubs loses confidence in its access to the marginal ton, prices do not drift upward. They jump. And the upward pressure is not over; it will have longer-term risk implications for the market, like all the other commodities affected by the war.