Materials are often treated as a technical consideration within manufacturing. But the choice, availability and processing of materials can influence an entire industrial system.

Materials determine what can be manufactured, how products are produced, which technologies can be deployed and how supply chains are structured.

This makes materials intelligence more than a question of engineering performance. It becomes part of the wider architecture of industrial development.

Understanding materials means understanding their relationship with manufacturing techniques, production capability, supply chains and ultimately markets.

For emerging economies, this connection is particularly important. Industrial development cannot be separated from the ability to understand available materials, build manufacturing capability around them and create the infrastructure required to move value from raw materials into markets.

Materials therefore sit at the beginning of a much larger conversation about industrial capability and economic value.