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Hello, I'm Justin Rowlatt. Welcome to Business Daily. And in the third of our series of programs, looking at the global economy from the chemical elements up,

we turn to what, on the face of it, is a rather uncharismatic metal to aluminium.

It may not be very shiny, but it is light, strong and flexible.

It's used in mundane objects from drinks cans to window frames,

but I'll be exploring a few of its newer and more glamorous applications.

When you go through this door, you're going to enter the largest aluminium body shop in the world.

We will be going through that door later in the programme.

That's all in Business Daily from the BBC.

Over the last few weeks, we've been urging listeners to ignore the vagaries of the financial numbers,

bond yields, share prices, interest rates,

and look instead at the fundamental basis of the world economy, the chemical elements.

Last week, we had helium, a gas so light, it drifts out into space.

And before that, it was phosphorus, which spontaneously ignites in the air.

And this week, well, it's a dependable but rather dull metal, aluminium.

Drinks cans, packaging, aircraft frames, useful, but not particularly interesting.

Or at least that's what I thought.

But Andrea Seller, our friendly chemistry professor at University College London, begged to differ.

Well, I think as someone who is describing himself as the ethical man, I think that's really, really unfortunate.

What I'd like to do is to get you to turn around and take a look, right?

Here we have an absolute gem of aluminium,

...