Category: Metals and minerals
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Geopolitical Concentration and the Growing Fragility of Critical Mineral Supply Chains
For more than a century, nations have competed for control over natural resources—from oil in West Asia to copper in Latin America—but the 21st century’s equivalent race is unfolding around critical minerals. These minerals—lithium, cobalt, manganese, rare earth elements—are the backbone of batteries, electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, defence hardware,…
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China, Rare Minerals, and the New Geometry of Global Commodity Markets
For most of modern economic history, commodity markets were shaped by geology and logistics: who had the ore, who had the ships, who could smelt at scale. In the 2020s, a different force started to dominate—state strategy. China’s “aggressive trade” posture in rare minerals is not simply about selling more.…
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Critical Minerals & Rare Earths: From Trade Goods to Strategic Power
For much of modern economic history, minerals were treated as inputs—extracted, traded, priced, and consumed largely through market mechanisms. Coal fueled industrial revolutions, iron ore fed steel mills, and copper wired the modern world. Price cycles mattered, but geopolitics remained mostly peripheral. That era is ending. Critical minerals and rare…
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Carbon, Not Cost, Is Becoming the New Trade Currency
For most of modern industrial history, global trade in metals and heavy manufacturing was governed by a familiar equation: price competitiveness, scale, and logistics efficiency. Carbon emissions were treated as an externality—an unfortunate by-product of growth, rarely embedded into trade rules themselves. That era is now decisively ending. Carbon intensity…
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Steel, Cement & Core Infrastructure: Volumes Are No Longer Enough
For much of modern economic history, steel and cement have been reliable barometers of growth. From post-war reconstruction in Europe to China’s infrastructure super-cycle of the 2000s, rising tonnage signaled expanding cities, factories, and transport networks. Even today, global infrastructure demand remains broadly steady, anchored by public spending, urbanisation in…
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India’s Capital Goods and Advanced Manufacturing Shift
India’s manufacturing landscape is entering a new phase—one defined not merely by capacity expansion, but by strategic autonomy, technology depth, and geopolitical positioning. This transition is not sudden; it is the cumulative outcome of policy experimentation, supply-chain disruptions, and the global race to localize critical industrial capabilities. Historically, India relied…
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Semiconductor Supply Crunch and the Auto Industry: A Historical Lens, Critical Analysis and Future Outlook
The global automotive industry is once again under siege from a semiconductor supply shock—this time triggered not by pandemic logistics but by geopolitics. Major car-makers such as Nissan Motor Corporation and Mercedes‑Benz Group are publicly warning of deepening chip shortages, as a regulatory dispute involving the Dutch government, Chinese ownership…
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Europe’s Rare-Earth Reckoning — The New Frontline of Industrial Sovereignty
Historical Perspective: From Post-War Recovery to Resource Dependency Europe’s post-war economic rise was built on manufacturing ingenuity and access to affordable raw materials — largely imported from its colonies or global partners. Over decades, deindustrialization and environmental policies reduced domestic mining, leaving the continent deeply dependent on external suppliers. Now,…
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Rare Earths and Real Power: How China’s Export Curbs Expose U.S. Strategic Vulnerabilities
The Geopolitical Weight of Invisible Minerals In the realm of global trade, few commodities are as obscure yet as essential as rare earth elements (REEs). These 17 minerals — vital for electronics, defense, and green technologies — form the backbone of modern economies. China’s recent move to regulate exports of…
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Trade Tensions and the Future of UK Steel: A Test of Post-Brexit Realities
The European Union is considering a significant escalation in its trade policy towards the United Kingdom’s steel industry. Reports suggest that Brussels may halve the duty-free quota for UK steel imports and double tariffs from 25% to 50%. This would not just be a technical adjustment of trade rules—it could…
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