The Brazilian branch of German engineering company Bosch has come up with a clever innovation. The fact that bioethanol can be freely obtained at filling stations in Rio de Janeiro alongside normal gasoline is down to the firm's flex-fuel direct injection systems which allow vehicles to run on mixtures of ethanol and gasoline.

Demand for copper is set to rise in the future, continuing to drive up its price. Economic powerhouse China is already establishing its own strategic copper reserves to satisfy its insatiable demand for raw materials. That's good news for the Lausitz.

Here the copper mining company KL Kupferschiefer Lausitz GmbH is expected to create 900 new jobs.

DW-TV: Ethanol is nothing new, but what's interesting with Brazil is that it's helping them to become self-sufficient when it comes to fuel. Christine Schweikert, can we talk about Brazil's ethanol being a model for the rest of the world?

Christine Schweikert: Brazil has got it easy in a way, as they've got the right climate and enough space to grow enough sugar cane for their ethanol. We would have to import it. You know, we've not got enough farming land to produce as much as we'd need, so we can't take that as a model, really - for Germany, at least.

DW-TV: All right, so the Brazilians have got a special case there. There's another interesting commodity in high demand right now connected with this rush to build electric cars right now - I'm talking about lithium. Lithium is needed in all of these batteries right now. Toyota is saying it plans to begin mining for lithium in Argentina. Could one say that lithium is the gold of the 21st century?

Christine Schweikert: Well, I don't know whether it's the gold, but it's certainly an investment into the future, because the car market will have to shift towards other fuels, away from oil and things like that. So I think it's definitely a good idea to invest there.

DW-TV: So many weird names right now on the market - new elements, trace elements, dysprosium, neodymium - I mean, it's a challenge just to speak about, just to pronounce those right now. A lot of investors are parking their money in these elements, thinking they're going to make a killing one day. As an analyst, do you see a goldmine there?

Christine Schweikert: Well, it's difficult to say, because that's not really on our radar screen because it's such small markets, so you've got a very high volatility. Also, it's difficult to invest there - you'd really have to invest in a company that mines or produces or uses the stuff. So you can't really go to a stocks exchange and say, OK, I want a future in any of these strange substances.

DW-TV: Let's talk a little bit about the development of the price for copper. We've seen a huge climb in the last year. We 've gone from about $4,000 per ton for copper; we're now under $8,000. The price dip a little bit this year but go back up. A lot of that had to do with the earthquake in Chile, right?

Christine Schweikert: That's right, there was the earthquake in Chile with blackouts, and a bit of production problems in the mines, but it's mainly China. It's mainly China's story, that's why copper rose so much last year. China's on a big buying spree, and the dip we saw this year was also due to the Chinese - everybody being worried about overheating, reigning in of loose monetary policy and a reduction of infrastructure and building projects.

DW-TV: Very briefly, you say overheating - is there a chance right now that we could see inflation affecting the price of copper? People are betting on copper prices staying high for a long time. Is that a safe bet?

Christine Schweikert: Well, I reckon that in the short term we might see a dip, but in the medium to long term, higher prices for copper. That is not an inflation problem - inflation is an entirely different thing and that's related to monetary policy, so I don't think you should connect the two.

Interview: Brent Goff

With 950 men and 50 women working under her, it's clearly a man's world. Nicola Hirsch is the only female senior executive in the German steel industry.

The accident could have been prevented if construction close to the site had been properly monitored, something that's mandatory nearly everywhere in Germany. Markus Wetzel is making sure a building site in Hamburg is adhering to the standards.