Astris Advisory Commodities
Ian Roper
Ian Roper
Commodities & China Strategist
Ian Roper is a highly regarded commodity strategist, with over 22 years’ experience in metals, starting at CRU in London. From 2003 Ian was based in Shanghai, China initially with Steel Business Briefing and then Macquarie, before a five-year stint at Rio Tinto running their iron ore analysis. In 2010 Ian worked as a sell-side analyst with CLSA, Macquarie and others based in Shanghai and Singapore. Since 2022 Ian has been based in Tokyo with Astris Advisory and continues to bring his leading-edge thoughts on the markets as an unbiased independent analyst. Ian covers the market outlook for base metals, ferrous metals, coal, and new energy materials, with a specialisation in Chinese domestic demand and supply fundamentals and policy developments. Ian’s 20 years in Asia have allowed him to develop an extensive contact network across the metals space, allowing him to bring often unique insights into the pricing dynamics for commodities. More recently Ian has been extending his reach into India, which since Covid has seen its metals consumption accelerate markedly, with many demographic and policy similarities with China starting to be seen. Ian provides regular monthly deep-dive reports on the outlook policy, demand, supply, and pricing across his coverage, together with more frequent updates on the ever-evolving market developments.