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‘The Steve Jobs of metals’ who brought the nickel market to a halt – by Neil Hume, Hudson Lockett, Eleanor Olcott and Gloria Li (Australian Financial Review – March 13, 2022)

https://www.afr.com/

London | To understand why Xiang Guangda is regarded as the Steve Jobs of metals, look at an aerial shot of the Morowali Industrial Park on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. It is here that the Chinese businessman built a vast manufacturing complex that stands as a testament to his domination of the global stainless steel industry.

“Xiang is a visionary,” says Kenny Ives, the former head of nickel trading at Glencore. “Tsingshan’s success in both China and Indonesia over the last 10 to 15 years is extraordinary.”

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Chinese tycoon’s ‘big short’ on nickel trips up Tsingshan’s miracle growth – by Praveen Menon, Min Zhang and Fransiska Nangoy (Reuters – March 14, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

March 14 (Reuters) – (This March 13 story corrects size of Morowali industrial park in paragraph 20, and to show production data is for whole company, not only for its Sulawesi facilities, in paragraph 21)

Chinese tycoon Xiang Guangda has to find a way to bail his Tsingshan Holding Group out of a crisis after its bet on nickel prices backfired, fuelling more volatility in a metal essential for the electric vehicles industry.

One of the world’s top nickel producers faces massive losses on its short positions after prices soared over $100,000 per tonne last week and forced the London Metal Exchange to halt nickel trading.

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Chinese Tycoon Tells Banks He Wants to Keep Shorting Nickel – by Jack Farchy, Alfred Cang and Mark Burton (Bloomberg News – March 10, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The Chinese tycoon whose big short bet on nickel helped trigger one of the most dramatic price spikes in history has told his banks and brokers that he doesn’t intend to reduce his position, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move is a characteristic display of self-confidence from Xiang Guangda, the owner of Tsingshan Holding Group Co., and means that the nickel market could be set for more fireworks once it reopens.

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Wild Nickel Market May Get Relief From Indonesia’s Higher Output – by Eko Listiyorini (Bloomberg News – March 9, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Indonesia, the world’s top nickel producer, will raise production capacity of the metal after prices soared past $100,000 a ton, while the coal market is unlikely to get similar relief.

The country is set to add 393,000 tons to 400,000 tons of nickel in metal output capacity this year, bringing the total to as much as 1.4 million tons, according to Coordinating Minister for Investment and Maritime Affairs Luhut Panjaitan. Next year, Indonesia will add another 500,000 tons of annual production capacity, he added.

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Japan Wants to Showcase Gold Mines’ History. Just Not All of It. – by Motoko Rich and Hikari Hida (New York Times – February 21, 2022)

https://www.nytimes.com/

A bid for a UNESCO World Heritage designation is the latest flash point between Japan and South Korea over Japanese colonial abuses during World War II.

SADO ISLAND, Japan — About 40 miles off the northwestern coast of Japan, Akiyoshi Iwasaki is eager to share some history of the mountainous, lightning-bolt-shaped isle where he grew up.

After years of lobbying by local residents, Mr. Iwasaki, a bar owner, is delighted that the Japanese government has nominated three gold and silver mines on Sado Island for UNESCO World Heritage designation, hoping to showcase them alongside Mount Fuji, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and Kyoto’s shrines.

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U.S. lawmakers blast Canada over sale of lithium mining company to Chinese firm – by Richard Madan (CTV News – February 23, 2022)

https://www.ctvnews.ca/

A trio of U.S. lawmakers are blasting Canada’s “complicit approval” that allowed the sale of a Toronto-listed lithium mining company to a Chinese state-owned firm, and are urging Biden administration officials to investigate the acquisition.

In a letter to several U.S. Cabinet secretaries obtained by CTV News, Rep. Michael Walz (R-Florida), Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Lance Gooden (R-TX) describe the takeover of Neo Lithium Corp by China’s Zijin Mining Group Ltd. as “highly concerning,” and accuse the Canadian government of underestimating “the threat imposed by the Chinese Communist Party.”

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Is China’s lithium quest fuelled by business or politics, and how far will it go to secure ‘white gold’? – by Ji Siqi (South China Morning Post – February 22, 2022)

https://www.scmp.com/

South America’s Lithium Triangle contains more than half of the world’s reserves of the critical metal that is used in batteries, and China is looking to carve out a bigger piece of the pie

Just days after Argentinian President Alberto Fernandez signed his country up for China’s Belt and Road Initiative during a high-profile trip to Beijing this month, the spot price of lithium metal in the Chinese market reached 2 million yuan (US$315,000) per tonne for the first time – more than four times what it cost a year ago.

The two countries happen to be the world’s major players in the supply chain of the metal – an essential material used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

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Electric vehicle battery demand surge supercharges nickel – by Andy Home (Reuters – February 21, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

Nickel rose to its highest level in more than a decade on Monday morning. London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month nickel has broken through January’s high of $24,435 per tonne to reach $24,610, a level last traded in 2011.

Time-spreads remain in the grip of a ferocious squeeze, the cash premium closing last week valued at $465 per tonne. The huge incentive for LME delivery has drawn some metal into exchange warehouses but not enough to halt the running downtrend.

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Red seas and no fish: Nickel mining takes its toll on Indonesia’s spice islands – by Rabul Sawal (Mongabay.com – February 16, 2022)

https://news.mongabay.com/

HALMAHERA, Indonesia — Yoksan Jurumudi came home with a long face after spending the whole day looking for fish in the waters off the Obi Islands in Indonesia’s North Maluku province. The fisherman dumped out his catch, but it was only enough to feed his own family. There was nothing left over that could be sold, let alone shared with his extended family.

The days when the fishermen of Obi Island would land a bounty of skipjack tuna have long passed, they say. It now takes them at least three days of fishing, venturing increasingly farther out to sea on their small wooden ketinting canoes, to bring back just 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of tuna.

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Trader Known as ‘Big Shot’ Battles Mystery Nickel Stockpiler – by Alfred Cang (Bloomberg News – February 14, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — In Chinese commodity circles, he’s known as “big shot” — the man who controls the world’s largest nickel producer and isn’t afraid to place big derivatives bets on where prices are headed next.

Now Xiang Guangda has emerged at the center of a market drama that’s fueling some of the largest price swings in years for a key ingredient in the fight against climate change.

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The China lithium question: a clash of the West’s corporate and strategic interests (Yahoo Finance/South China Post – February 13, 2022)

https://finance.yahoo.com/

The deal went through swiftly – and almost immediately prompted calls for a national security review. Just three months after Chinese-state-owned Zijin Mining Group announced its US$960 million plans to buy Canadian miner Neo Lithium, the proposal was signed, screened and delivered.

At a corporate level, the deal made sense. Neo Lithium’s biggest mine operation is in Argentina, where Zijin already has interests and plans to build a lithium carbonate plant. Canadian officials also said carmakers in North America were unlikely to use lithium produced so far away.

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COLUMN-Iron ore fundamentals appear at odds with Beijing’s lower price wish – by Clyde Russell (Nasdaq.com – February 10, 2022)

https://www.nasdaq.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Feb 10 (Reuters) – China is once again trying to talk down the price of iron ore, with the state planner warning that market players “should not fabricate or publish any false price information.”

The problem for the authorities in Beijing is that iron ore prices seem perfectly capable of rallying on actual supply and demand fundamentals.

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Central Asia’s struggle to keep lights on fuels nuclear ambitions – by Paul Bartlett (Nikkei Asia – February 5, 2022)

https://asia.nikkei.com/

ALMATY — Power outages across parts of southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have brought into focus an urgent need to upgrade the crumbling, Soviet-era grid these Central Asian countries rely on to keep the lights on.

All three are groping about for solutions, including nuclear power. Kyrgyzstan became the latest to move toward the atom in January when it announced plans to build a small nuclear plant with Russia.

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China supplies the largest number of minerals to the US, many of which classified as ‘critical’ – by Vladimir Basov (Kitco News – February 1, 2022)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – China, followed by Canada, supplied the largest number of nonfuel mineral commodities to the United States in 2021.

According to the report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the countries that were the leading sources of imported mineral commodities to the United States with greater than 50% net import reliance were: China, 25 mineral commodities; Canada, 16 mineral commodities; Germany, 11 mineral commodities; South Africa, 10 mineral commodities; and Brazil and Mexico, 9 mineral commodities each.

USGS said that in 2021, imports made up more than one-half of the U.S. apparent consumption for 47 nonfuel mineral commodities, and the United States was 100% net import reliant for 17 of those.

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Communist Chinese Imperialists Steal Sub-Saharan Africa – by Austin Bay (The Epoch Times – January 27, 2022)

https://www.theepochtimes.com/

A quick review of communist China’s calculated territorial imperialism in the South China Sea helps clarify Beijing’s calculated economic, political and criminal imperialism in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2016 the Hague’s international tribunal ruled that China had seized islets and “sea features” in the South China Sea belonging to the Philippines. It had also plundered Filipino fishing resources.

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