Russia and China are making much of their strategic partnership as a counterbalance to their stresses with the West, but the European Union is still much more important economically to Russia than is China, and …
Articles by: "David Uren"
The best test of the effectiveness of US sanctions policy over Ukraine will be if it deters Russia from invading and encourages a negotiated solution. Once the military has moved, sanctions are unlikely to prompt …
Xi Jinping and Joe Biden both face major political events in the closing months of this year and want economic conditions to be as favourable as possible, but the two have taken opposite tacks on …
Originally published 3 May 2021. China’s steel industry is blaming the concentrated ownership of Australia’s iron ore mines for the soaring ore price and is calling for Chinese government intervention. ‘We believe that the supply …
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 …
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 …