In August last year, Olaf Scholz—then Germany’s finance minister and now its chancellor—attempted to persuade the Trump administration to drop its proposed sanctions on the companies building the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia …
Articles by: "David Uren"
China’s system of bankrolling its state companies may be entrenching great inefficiency in its economy but has delivered it unchallenged dominance in the critical minerals required for advanced technologies. Separate investigations by the New York …
Budget deficits used to be seen as proof of profligacy, but a new permissiveness has swept the world, partly in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, but also reflecting new economic thinking about the sustainability of …
Will soaring prices for coal, oil and gas speed their replacement by renewables or foster a surge of investment in fossil fuels? The new political economy of climate change is facing a head-on collision with …
China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement is dead in the water unless its commerce minister, Wang Wentao, agrees to meet his Australian counterpart, Dan Tehan. Tehan has …
Australia has a lot riding on the success of the Chinese authorities in containing the fallout from financially troubled developer Evergrande on China’s property market more generally. China’s property developers account for an astounding 20% …
The iron ore market is wrong-footing forecasters again, as it has throughout the past 20 years. No one expected the iron ore price to surpass US$200 a tonne as it did in May, and no …
Every million tonnes of coal has recently been costing China’s steel mills more than US$400 million, compared with around US$250 million paid by steel mills everywhere else. The difference is entirely explained by China’s embargo …
A recent report in China’s Global Times newspaper suggests Chinese steel mills are imposing discriminatory cuts to exports to Australia as a new element in the continuing campaign of economic coercion against the government. ‘China’s shrinking steel …
Foreign direct investment is increasingly being seen as a threat to national security as relations between China and the West deteriorate. Twenty-five nations imposed new security regulations controlling investment inflows during the past year. There …
In the lead-up to the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party last month, hundreds of Chinese coal mines were ordered to shut down to ensure the celebrations weren’t marred by any fatal accidents. There …
Globalisation is back with such a vengeance that the shipping lines are struggling to keep up, sending freight rates to astronomic levels. The onset of the pandemic early last year slashed trade volumes and highlighted …