Metal prices and exchange traded funds (ETFs) have been on a roller coaster ride lately. Regardless of performance, stories about the dollar, China’s demand and homebuilding reports have put metals firmly on center stage.

Don Dion for The Street notes that several factors play into performance of industrial and base metals:

If electric cars are adopted by the market in the US and abroad, there will be a shift in the relative demand growth rate for certain basic materials.

While global population growth and average global standard of living increases will raise overall materials demand across the board, a move toward electric cars, particularly plug-in electric cars, will change the composition of basic materials demand growth.