Wood Mackenzie boosts battery metals expertise with Roskill buy

Wood Mackenzie announced on Friday it had acquired Roskill, a privately-owned company and leader in metals and materials supply chain intelligence, boosting the consultancy’s expertise in energy transition.

Neal Anderson, President of Wood Mackenzie, said the business combination added market-leading analysis, data and insight on battery raw materials metals, to its current offer.

“Combining Roskill’s capabilities with Wood Mackenzie reinforces our ability to provide comprehensive, integrated analysis across the energy, and metals and mining value chain,” Anderson said. 

Roskill, which describes itself as a “leader in critical materials supply chain intelligence”, was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in London.

Scotland-based Wood Mackenzie believes that capital spending on clean energy projects will need to rise to US$1 trillion a year, compared to their current levels of US$150 billion in 2020, if the world is to reach its net-zero emission targets by 2050.

The consultancy has said such hefty annual investment in key energy transition metals, namely nickel, lithium, cobalt, copper and graphite will have to be sustained over the next 15 years to meet the growing demands of decarbonization.

“Integrated, in-depth analysis of the value chain for these metals and materials is crucial to understanding the transition,” Valerie Purvis, who will be assuming the role of Global Head of Metals & Mining, including Roskill, said in the statement.

Wood Mackenzie’s move follows a recent announcement by BMO Capital Markets, which has launched a dedicated Energy Transition Group to support clients in pursuit of opportunities driven by the shift in production and consumption of energy.

Low-carbon technologies typically require more critical minerals than their fossil fuel counterparts. An electric vehicle (EV), for instance, requires six times the amount of critical minerals as an internal combustion engine (ICE) car, according to The International Energy Agency (IEA).