Reuters (July 22)
“China’s hardened rhetoric against price wars among producers is raising expectations Beijing may be about to kick off industrial capacity cuts in a long-awaited, but challenging, campaign against deflation that carries risks to economic growth.” Such a campaign would “echo” similar successful “reforms a decade ago to reduce the production of steel, cement, glass and coal, which were crucial to ending a period of 54 consecutive months of falling factory gate prices.” Success may prove elusive this round. “The fight against deflation will be much more complicated and poses risks to employment and growth” while U.S. trade war ”is intensifying price wars, squeezing factory profits.”
Tags: Beijing, Cement, China, Coal, Complicated, Deflation, Economic growth, Employment, Expectations, Glass, Growth, Industrial capacity, Price wars, Producers, Rhetoric, Risks, Steel, Trade war, U.S.
Bloomberg (March 13)
“Trade’s share of global GDP peaked in 2008, and has been falling for the past decade. So the war in Ukraine doesn’t necessarily mark sharp a break in history. But it underlines and will perhaps cement the decline of globalization.”
Inc (May Issue)
“The world’s most ubiquitous manmade material is also one of the atmosphere’s arch foes: Between 4 and 7 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions come from cement production.” This may be changing. A “new cement-making process that subs out some of the traditionally used limestone for a synthetic version of the mineral wollastonite” cuts emissions by approximately 70%. Moreover, “Solidia’s manufacturing process can be done in existing facilities and costs about the same as–and, perhaps soon enough, less than–traditional cement-making methods.”
Tags: Atmosphere, Cement, Costs, Emissions, GHGs, Limestone, Manufacturing, Solidia, Synthetic, Wollastonite
Financial Times (August 26)
“China’s tottering property market presents one of the greatest threats to the global economy.” The reverberations would be felt around the globe, particularly by nations reliant on natural resource exports. “The size of China’s property boom–and therefore the fallout from any crash–is awe-inspiring. In just two years, 2011 and 2012, China produced more cement than the US did in the entire 20th century.”
Tags: Boom, Cement, China, Crash, Exports, Fallout, Global economy, Natural resources, Property market, Threats, U.S.
Financial Times (June 17)
“From chemicals and cement to earthmovers and flatscreen televisions, Chinese industry is awash with excess capacity that is driving down profits inside and outside the country and threatens to further destabilise China’s already shaky growth.”
Tags: Cement, Chemicals, China, Excess capacity, Growth, Industry, Profits, Televisions
