Category: Strategic Resources

China Expands Strategic Reserve of Industrial Metals as Indonesia, Philippines Tighten Supply

China is quietly expanding its strategic reserves of key industrial metals, including nickel, just as Indonesia and the Philippines tighten export policies and raise mining royalties, reshaping global supply chains. Beijing’s stockpiling efforts and shifting supply dynamics in Southeast Asia are ...

With Prices Low, China Moves Quickly to Secure Supplies of Critical Metals

The year-long plunge in the prices of critical materials used to manufacture electric vehicle batteries, namely nickel, cobalt, and lithium, is destroying the bottom lines of Western mining companies. Mining companies in Australia, Canada, and several European countries are laying off ...

Massive Russian Energy Buys Are Transforming China’s Global Trade

Russia is now China's largest single supplier of energy commodities in a shift that is also transforming Beijing's trade engagement in countries throughout the Global South. Whereas fifteen years ago, China sourced a third of its imported crude oil from African ...

Challenging Chinese Mining Contracts Isn’t About Politics, It’s About What’s Fair, Says DRC Finance Minister

DR Congo Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi pushed back against the narrative that Kinshasa is specifically targeting Chinese companies over unfair mining contracts. The minister was adamant in his discussion with Financial Times correspondent Tom Wilson at the FT Commodities Global ...

Chinese Embassy in DR Congo Dismisses State Auditor Report That Demands $17 Billion in Additional Infrastructure

The Chinese embassy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo blasted a report published late last week by the state auditor in Kinshasa that called for an additional $17 billion of infrastructure as part of a 2008 infrastructure-for-minerals deal. In its report, the General ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

China-Led Study Proposes Global Energy Network

A globally connected network of solar and wind energy could provide three times the global energy demand by 2050 at a lower cost than independent national power systems. This is the finding of a study led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with researchers from the United States and Denmark.

The study focused on how areas with high solar and wind capacity (such as deserts) can be linked to ...

Congolese Cobalt May Become a Casualty of the New U.S. Climate Law

It appears that the Democratic Republic of Congo and other African countries that produce strategic resources used to manufacture electric vehicle batteries may be sidelined by the new U.S. climate law known as the Inflation Reduction Act or IRA. A key ...

Chinese Battery Giant CATL Bets on the Future of Cobalt By Buying a Big Chunk of CMOC

Strong demand for electric vehicles around the world helped to triple profits at Chinese battery giant CATL, the world's largest battery maker. The company is reporting that third-quarter profits for the year will reach $1.23 billion. CATL is going to use ...