# Supply Elasticity Score (SES)

How hard it is for supply to respond when demand rises. SES runs from 0 to 100: the higher the score, the less new supply a price rise can bring on, and the longer a shortage can last.

Source: https://www.stockatomics.com/research/supply-elasticity

## What it measures

A price rise only eases a shortage if it brings on more supply. For some minerals that happens within a year or two; for others, new mines take a decade, refining capacity sits in one place, nothing can substitute for the mineral in its end uses and little comes back from recycling. **SES** scores those obstacles the same way for every mineral, so you can compare how long a supply squeeze could last.

It is a structural score: it changes when the supply side changes, through new capacity, a substitute or a recycling route, rather than with the price.

## The five factors

Each factor is scored 0–100, and SES is their average. In the Terminal, they are the five tiles at the top of every mineral page.

- **Time to add supply**: How long it takes to bring new mine supply online. (In years; 12 or more scores 100)
- **Capital intensity**: How much capital it takes to build new supply capacity. (Rated 1–5 → 0–100)
- **Processing difficulty**: How hard it is to expand the processing and refining capacity needed to increase supply. (Rated 1–5 → 0–100)
- **Substitution difficulty**: How hard it is to replace this mineral in its end uses. (Rated 1–5 → 0–100)
- **Recycling difficulty**: How little supply can be recovered through recycling. (Rated 1–5 → 0–100)

## Reading the score

Five bands of 20 points each, shown in the Terminal as the dots on every card on the Critical Minerals page and used by its SES filter.

- Very inelastic: 80–100
- Inelastic: 60–80
- Moderate: 40–60
- Elastic: 20–40
- Very elastic: 0–20

SES also feeds the company scores: it is part of **[CMCS](https://www.stockatomics.com/research/company-exposure)**, Mineral exposure (MES) and Supply leverage (SLS), so a company’s output in a mineral whose supply is hard to expand counts for more than the same output in one whose supply responds easily.

## Most and least elastic

The latest readings, in the Stockatomics Terminal.

In the Stockatomics Terminal (https://www.stockatomics.com/terminal/research/supply-elasticity, sign-in required):

- Least and most elastic minerals: Every mineral’s SES, from the hardest supply to expand to the easiest.
- Minerals in each band: How many minerals sit in each of the five SES bands.
- The five factors, mineral by mineral: Each mineral’s time to add supply, capital, processing, substitution and recycling scores.

## FAQ

### What is the Supply Elasticity Score (SES)?

How hard it is for a critical mineral’s supply to respond when demand rises. SES runs from 0 to 100: the higher the score, the less new supply a price rise can bring on, and the longer a shortage can last.

### How is SES calculated?

SES is the average of five factors, each scored 0–100: time to add supply, capital intensity, processing difficulty, substitution difficulty and recycling difficulty.

### Does SES change with the price?

No. It is a structural score: it changes when the supply side changes, through new capacity, a substitute or a recycling route, rather than with the price.

## More research

The full method is set out in [our research paper](https://www.stockatomics.com/research/constraint-transmission-framework).

- [The Stockatomics Model](https://www.stockatomics.com/research): what Stockatomics measures and where the data comes from.
- [Supply Concentration (C)](https://www.stockatomics.com/research/supply-concentration): How few producing countries hold world supply.
- [Demand Momentum (DM)](https://www.stockatomics.com/research/demand-momentum): The demand growth a mineral inherits from the sectors that use it.
- [Company Exposure (CMCS)](https://www.stockatomics.com/research/company-exposure): How much of a listed company’s output is in constrained, concentrated, fast-growing minerals.
- [Benchmark Prices](https://www.stockatomics.com/research/benchmark-prices): The monthly price per kg contained, for every critical mineral.
- [Stock vs Mineral Performance](https://www.stockatomics.com/research/stock-vs-mineral): How listed companies performed against their minerals’ benchmark prices.
- [AI Infrastructure Index](https://www.stockatomics.com/ai-infrastructure-index): What the hardware behind AI costs, month by month.