Category: Commodities
Yet Another Social Media Video Revealing Tensions Between Chinese and Congolese Miners
In what's becoming an increasingly frequent pattern, another video appeared online on Sunday showing a heated exchange between a Chinese and Congolese miner. The video that is now circulating widely on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube does not provide a lot of contextual information as to ...
When It Comes To Mining, Africa and Australia Are the Primary Sources of Key Minerals and Metals for China
China may be trying to transition to a services-led high technology economy that doesn't rely as much on manufacturing but that shift will take years. In the meantime, Chinese factories still need to rely on vast amounts of minerals, metals, and other mining products to bolster their ...
As Much as China Probably Wants to Shift Its Iron Ore Buys From Australia to Africa, It Won’t Happen Soon
There's been a lot of discussion over the past year about China's desire to eliminate its dependence on Australian iron ore in favour of supplies from countries like Guinea, Algeria, South Africa and Brazil among others. China has been steadily trying ...
Booming Chinese Demand for African Metals and Minerals Pushes Prices to Record Highs
These are good days for Africa's metals and mineral exporters, who are seeing record prices thanks to strong demand, in part, from China and international automakers that produce new energy vehicles. The timing for this latest "commodity supercycle," ...
3 Reasons Why Ghana Should be Anxious About China’s Entry Into The Cocoa Market
Months after news broke that China had entered into the global cocoa market with an initial delivery of 500 kilograms of beans shipped to Belgium from the southern island of Hainan, Ghanaians are still trying to figure out whether they have reason to be ...
Commodity Supercycle Blues
The editorial board of Financial Times published an op-ed yesterday announcing a new commodities supercycle. They argued that the global pivot towards climate-friendlier technologies like electric vehicles is pushing demand for metals like cobalt, lithium and palladium (used in catalytic converters.) In addition, the Biden administration’s new commitments ...
Despite Lots of M&A Activity in the Cobalt Mining Sector, Chinese Imports of the Precious Metal Fell Sharply in 2020
Chinese cobalt imports fell 41.8% last year compared to the volumes shipped from the DRC in 2019, according to the mining news website Argus Media. The lockdowns in response to COVID-19 at the mines in the DRC and at South African ports, from where the precious metal ...
Zambia Stands to Benefit From Rising Copper Prices Due to Heightened Chinese Demand
While Zambia tries to figure out how if/how it plans to restructure its $12 billion debt portfolio, government coffers stand to benefit from resurgent copper prices, a major source of export earnings. The price of copper recently ...
Namibian Beef Exports to China Continue While Dozens of Other Countries Halt Meat Trade Due to COVID-19
China's General Administration of Customs published a list of 46 meat processing plants around the world that have halted exports to China due to COVID-19 outbreaks among their workers. But Namibia, so far, is not on the list. ...
What Do the Latest China-Africa Trade Numbers Tell us About This Relationship? Not as Much as You Might Think.
Two-way China-Africa trade increased slightly by 2.2% last year to $208.7 billion, according to newly released data from China's General Administration of Customs. At first glance, trade between these two regions seems to be quite balanced overall. ...