Patterns and evolutionary characteristics of global ICT-embodied metal flows : a complex network perspective

The rapid development of the information and communication technology （ICT） industry has driven global economic growth, but it has also resulted in the continuous consumption of metal resources. With the global production and consumption of ICT products, the embodied metals associated with these products flow across different economies, leading to the formation of a complex network structure. To reveal the flow patterns and evolutionary characteristics of global ICT-embodied metals, this paper combines input-output model and complex network model to calculate the consumption of global ICT-embodied metals from 2000 to 2022. The study constructs directed and weighted embodied metal flow networks, analyzes the overall characteristics, identifies the key regions and key paths in the networks, and further explores the community structure and its evolutionary process. The results show that global ICT-embodied metals are on the rise, with approximately half involved in cross-regional flows. The global ICT-embodied metal flow networks exhibit typical small-world characteristics, and changes in one region can quickly transmit and influence the global flows. A few regions play key roles in the ICT-embodied metal flows. The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom are key inflow regions, while Chinese Mainland, the United States, Chinese Taiwan, and Mexico control the outflow, and RoW Asia and Pacific, the United States, and Chinese Mainland serve as crucial bridging regions. Furthermore, the top 20% of flow paths account for about 90% of the total flows. The flow of key paths, such as “Chinese Mainland→USA” “Mexico→USA” and “Chinese Mainland→India”, shows an increasing trend year by year. ICT-embodied metal flows show a clear clustering pattern and gradually evolves into four communities with the cores of Chinese Mainland, the United Kingdom and Germany, Japan and South Korea, and the United States. And the intra-community connections are gradually strengthening. Based on the results, this study proposes relevant policy recommendations to support the sustainable utilization of ICT-embodied metals.