Day: January 29, 2024

Indonesia’s flood of nickel sparks ‘Darwinian’ battle for survival among miners

Media Library

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Indonesia is flooding the global nickel market with low-cost supplies, forcing rivals to shut unprofitable mines and sowing panic in Washington and Paris that the upheaval will give China more control over the strategic resource. The country, the world’s largest producer, expanded production by 30 per cent last year to 1.9mn tonnes even though global demand for the metal used in electric car batteries and stainless steel barely grew, according…

N Korea launches rural growth committee as economy struggles

Media Library

North Korea has formally launched a party committee dedicated to the development of its economically challenged rural regions. This initiative comes as local areas are dealing with economic difficulties stemming from sanctions and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The inauguration of the committee followed just about a week after the country’s leader Kim Jong Un made a rare public acknowledgement of the dire state of his country’s economy, urging ruling party officials to take immediate action. “In the midst of actively promoting organizational work to thoroughly and perfectly implement…

The looming trade tensions over China’s subsidies

Media Library

In a speech that delivered China’s assessment of world trade conditions in 2024, commerce minister Wang Wentao last week warned the “environment is poor”. “Rising trade protectionism” and “intensified geopolitical conflicts” were among the main challenges, he told reporters in Beijing on Friday. But in China’s favour, he reassured his audience, were record exports from its “new three” industries: electric vehicles, solar energy products and lithium batteries. The rapid growth of China’s new breed of green exports — which rose 30 per cent year-on-year to Rmb1tn ($139.3bn) in 2023, according…

Global trade: the looming tensions over China’s subsidies

Media Library

In a speech that delivered China’s assessment of world trade conditions in 2024, commerce minister Wang Wentao last week warned the “environment is poor”. “Rising trade protectionism” and “intensified geopolitical conflicts” were among the main challenges, he told reporters in Beijing on Friday. But in China’s favour, he reassured his audience, were record exports from its “new three” industries: electric vehicles, solar energy products and lithium batteries. The rapid growth of China’s new breed of green exports — which rose 30 per cent year-on-year to Rmb1tn ($139.3bn) in 2023, according…

Chinese fintech giant Ant Group expands overseas payment service Alipay+ to serve visa-free, Lunar New Year travellers

Media Library

Ant Group, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, is boosting its operations throughout Asia, as the Chinese fintech major seeks to capitalise on the country’s visa-free policy and an anticipated Lunar New Year travel boom. Ant recently expanded the availability of Alipay+, its cross-border mobile payment service, across Asia and in parts of Europe, covering more than 100,000 stores in Thailand and Dubai, respectively, and 10,000 taxis in 12 Italian regions, the company said on Tuesday. Alipay+ is designed to help small and medium-sized businesses accept payments from…

Middle East ‘incredibly volatile’ after deadly attack, Blinken warns

Media Library

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has warned that the Middle East faces its most “dangerous” conditions since at least 1973, as Washington considers its response to an attack that killed three service members at the weekend. Blinken’s comments on Monday underscored the concern in the Biden administration about the potential for an expansion of the conflict, even as it vows to retaliate against the Iran-backed militias it has…

Cambodian opposition leader appeals 27-year sentence

Media Library

Updated Jan. 30, 2023, 06:35 a.m. ET. The Phnom Penh Appeals Court began hearing former Cambodian opposition party leader Kem Sokha’s bid to overturn his 27-year sentence for treason on Tuesday. The hearing, which ended at noon local time, was the first of nine. The court will reconvene on Feb. 8. International human rights groups called on Cambodian authorities to release the 70-year-old immediately. Sam Rainsy, the exiled acting leader of Sokha’s Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), also called for the verdict to be quashed. “There’s no way forward for…

Evergrande collapse means foreign investors in China face even greater uncertainty

Media Library

As China’s most embattled – and indebted – property developer is ordered to liquidate, the effects that Evergrande’s collapse will have on investors, debt holders and the hundreds of thousands of homebuyers who have paid deposits for homes remains uncertain. Evergrande, the Chinese property developer, was worth just $275m on Monday, down 99% from its peak in 2017. It owes more than $300bn to various creditors, according to its most recent financial report. In a scathing judgment delivered in Hong Kong’s high court on Monday, Justice Linda Chan said “enough…

China’s anti-corruption watchdog says 110,000 Communist Party officials faced disciplinary action last year

Media Library

Despite previously hailing an “overwhelming victory” against corruption, Xi told the CCDI’s annual planning event earlier this month that the party must continue to fight graft and other problems with “tenacity, perseverance and precision” to transcend “the historical cycle of rise and fall”. ‘Long and arduous’ road ahead for China’s attempt to discipline party ranks The CCDI said last year’s disciplinary cases covered breaches of the eight rules on official conduct that Xi laid down soon after taking over as head of the party in late 2012. These rules, enforced…

China’s slump pushes smaller companies overseas for growth

Media Library

Small and midsized Chinese companies, including some that had never thought about venturing overseas before, are increasingly exploring opportunities abroad as domestic competition intensifies and sales slump. Despite tensions between Washington and Beijing, many of them are setting their sights on the US market due to its vast size and higher margins. Several of these hopefuls took part in the CES trade show in Las Vegas this month, taking the opportunity to show off their products, sound out the market and seek partnerships. “US investors are more receptive to new…