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Page added on November 1, 2017
China and the New Energy Economy
There is an increasingly inescapable sense that an energy transition of enormous proportions is taking place. The number of ‘bans’ announced on Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles is growing, even if governments are placing them relatively far out on the political horizon.
More and more car manufacturers are taking note and shifting R&D spending into Electric Vehicles (EVs), a move which has profound implications for the development curves, and thus future cost, of EVs versus ICE vehicles.
In October, US automaker General Motors said that it would launch two new pure electric models in 2018 and a further 18 by 2023.
Its competitor Ford announced the creation of a new internal team to “think big and move fast” in order to accelerate the electrification of its auto production. Both are some way behind their European counterparts.
It is not hard to see why such decisions are being made now. While the number of EVs on the road remains just a fraction of the total parc, global sales are growing by about 40% year-on-year, making EVs the biggest growth story in the auto market in decades.
And, if governments are going to regulate against ICE vehicles and subsidize EVs, thereby changing the consumer choices which otherwise might be made, then what other path is there to tread?
CHINESE WHISPERS
What has rocked the car world most has been a potential ban on ICE vehicles in China. Talk of such a move may be overblown as nothing has been said yet by the country’s top policy-making body, the National Development and Reform Commission, but just floating such an idea in China is significant.
The country is both the world’s largest car market and the world’s biggest maker and consumer of EVs — not just passenger cars, but also electric buses and trucks.
Moreover, there is some meat behind the speculation. Beijing has promoted EVs heavily to date.
It is cutting back on passenger car subsidies, but has also announced that car makers in China producing or importing more than 30,000 cars a year must ensure that, by 2020, 12% of them are all-electric, plug-in hybrid or hydrogen powered.
If a company wants a stake in the world’s largest car market, then, at the very least, it will have to offer consumers a choice of both EV and ICE vehicles.
KEY DRIVERS
Urban air pollution and security of supply are key issues in this equation.
Coal stands alone among the fossil fuels as the only one for which China has avoided a burgeoning import bill, owing to the expansion of a huge domestic mining industry.
But this has come at the price of chronic urban air pollution, the three primary ingredients of which are coal-fired power generation, heavy industry and ICE vehicles, the latter being particularly noticeable given China’s rapid urbanization over the last 20 years.
China’s leaders therefore have a series of tough, interlinked problems to resolve.
They need to reduce the country’s reliance on heavy industry as the engine of economic growth and on coal-fired electricity generation as the backbone of the electricity system; and they need to deliver on the growing demand for transportation that the process of urbanization promotes while at the same time reducing air pollution.
CHINA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH OIL
The idea of an ICE ban in China is clearly at odds with some aspects of Chinese industrial policy and observers have been quick to note the obvious tensions with the country’s massive expansion of its refining capacity.
China has thrown billions of dollars into this industry over the past two decades, just as it has into becoming the world’s largest ICE car manufacturer. Chinese refining capacity rose from 4.2 million b/d in 1996 to 8.5 million b/d in 2006 and 14.2 million b/d in 2016.
Yet the expansion of Chinese refining has been a game of constant catch-up; refinery throughput has never quite matched oil product consumption, and domestic crude output has fallen far behind demand, owing to the country’s limited domestic oil reserves.
The success of Chinese refining is that it has minimized the bill from oil product imports, capturing within the domestic economy the refining margin, but this will only ever be a modest gain given the expense of growing crude imports.
These imports cost China somewhere in the region of $134 billion in 2016 and a whopping $1.9 trillion over the past decade in 2016 dollars.
It is a massive outflow of capital, and the supply chains involved leave China vulnerable to price and physical supply shocks that can have serious repercussions for its export industries.
Moreover, the country is quickly heading in the same direction with natural gas, imports of which rose from next to nothing in 2006 to 72.3 Bcm in 2016.
FOSSIL FUEL DEPENDENCE
Dependence on fossil fuel imports is an economic vulnerability, but more often than not a sign of economic strength rather than weakness.
It reflects the capacity of an economy to add value to raw material inputs through manufacturing and processing.
The world’s strongest and most diversified economies are all net fossil fuel importers.
But the outflow of capital spent on fossil fuel imports must be balanced by the export of value-added goods.
An economy dependent on raw material imports must also be an export economy, and China has long recognized that this creates a second weakness; it is dependent on extended international raw material supply chains on the one hand, and the health of export markets on the other.
Both are factors beyond China’s control, as it discovered with the rise in oil and other commodity prices from 2004, and then, in terms of export demand, during and after the global financial crisis of 2007/08.
Beijing has gone a long way to rebalance its export-oriented economy over the past decade, boosting domestic consumption and services at the expense of further expansion in export-oriented industry.
Services accounted for 51.6% of Chinese GDP in 2016, compared with 44.1% in 2010, while industry’s share fell from 46.4% in 2010 to 39.8% last year.
However, it wants to go further and at the same time address the problem of air pollution.
It can only do this by embracing the New Energy Economy, based upon renewables and the electrification of transport.
Developing EVs and renewables in tandem cuts pollution and redresses the issue of capital outflows and supply insecurity, while at the same time capturing more value-added internally, strengthening the domestic economy vis-a-vis the export-oriented economic model of the past.
SOLAR SUCCESS
Solar power has been an extraordinary success for China.
The industry has benefited from what has in effect been multiple layers of subsidization — at home through state assistance for building and deploying production capacity, as well as R&D spending, and abroad as governments in a number of Western and other countries have sought to incentivize renewables as a growing part of the energy mix.
These subsidies are being reduced, but largely because they are no longer needed — solar is competitive with fossil fuels for power generation in an increasing number of countries.
Moreover, the reduction of subsidies spurs innovation in what has become a cut-throat business.
As a result, China’s solar industry is entering a new phase in which it is focused on innovation and making its huge solar deployment capacities more economically efficient.
A number of recent studies, such as Stanford University’s The New Solar System, show that the West has misconceived the nature of the solar industry in China.
It is not a subsidized monolith on the verge of financial collapse, and it is increasingly innovative.
Notably, Trina Solar has achieved the world efficiency record for laboratory scale multicrystalline-silicon solar cells.
This technology dominates the global market for solar power, making up 70% of global PV production in 2016.
However, in terms of the New Energy Economy, it is the direct link that has been created between manufacturing and energy generation that is significant, challenging supply chains based on mining and oil and gas extraction.
China is now able to leverage its manufacturing capacities and low wage costs in the generation of energy.
RARE EARTH ELEMENTS
China’s venture in to the New Energy Economy is backed by its natural resource advantage in Rare Earth Elements.
REEs are used in multiple applications from medicine and defense to electronics, but some are specifically used in batteries for hybrid and fully electric cars.
Their use in permanent magnets also means they are required for wind turbine generators, as well as numerous electrical and electronic components. Like lithium and cobalt, they are key ingredients in the New Energy Economy.
REEs are not, despite their name, that rare, but they are distributed in low concentrations, which makes economic recovery difficult.
However, China is far and away the world’s number one producer of REEs.
The concentration of REE production in China may be a cause for concern for other countries, as is the concentration of cobalt production in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but for China it means that an important part of the new supply chain is kept in-house.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Similar factors apply to EVs. Here again the idea that Chinese industry is not innovative is misguided.
According to research by McKinsey, Chinese consumers can already choose from about 75 different EV models made by both domestic and foreign manufacturers, more than any other country in the world.
As with solar, some foreign observers have concluded that China’s EV industry is unsustainable because of the level of subsidy — China currently subsidizes about 23% of the total EV price in various ways.
However, as with the solar market, increased competition and a reduction in subsidies will force more efficient use of resources and increase the focus on innovation and manufacturing gains.
China is already a significant innovator in this sphere. BYD, China’s principal EV manufacturer, uses its own lithium iron-phosphate (LFP) technology, underlining that China’s EV industry is not dependent on Western technology or intellectual property.
Moreover, by many measures BYD is far in advance of iconic US EV maker Tesla, which uses lithium nickel cobalt aluminum-oxide battery technology.
BYD has twice the battery production capacity of Tesla and more than eight times the battery storage technology deployment.
Its passenger car sales are higher and it has already commercialized e-buses and e-trucks, which Tesla only hopes to do around 2020.
While LFP batteries have lower energy density than Tesla’s, their stability allows faster charging and greater durability.
According to Wood Mackenzie, BYD recharges its buses at 300 kW without cooling, faster than Tesla’s superchargers, formerly the fastest recharging system in the world.
EVS AND SOLAR COMBINED
China’s investment in EVs is as significant as its investment in solar power, where it dominates the market.
According to Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, China and Taiwan accounted for 68% of solar PV module production in 2016, compared with 4% in Europe and 6% in Canada and the US combined.
For China, EVs and solar are both policies designed to strengthen the domestic economy and combat air pollution.
In combination with other renewables, such as wind and hydro, they are designed to create a New Energy Economy, which retains maximum value within the domestic economy and reduces its exposure to external shocks.
Despite China being the biggest market for solar power and EVs, both are still small in terms of electricity consumption and generation.
However, the number of EVs on the road in China now exceeds 1 million, according to www.EV-volumes.com, split between 634,794 passenger vehicles and 362,120 heavy vehicles, mainly buses.
The figures include both pure EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
According to S&P Global Platts calculations, China’s fleet of EVs consumed about 20-25 TWh of electricity in 2016, accounting for less than 0.5% of total electricity generated in China that year.
China’s solar power generation in 2016 was 66.2 TWh, about 1% of electricity generated, so in a slightly surreal sense China’s EV fleet was powered entirely by solar power.
EV electricity consumption rose by 143% (15.7 TWh) in 2016, while solar power generation grew by 72% (27.7 TWh).
China’s EVs will also be displacing close to 300,000 b/d of oil products demand, primarily diesel, by end-2017, assuming continued growth in e-HDV sales, which reached 205,886 last year, and about 40% year-on-year growth in light-duty EVs.
At end-2016, China’s EV fleet was displacing just over 180,000 b/d of oil products, more than 90% of which was accounted for by e-HDVs.
EXTERNAL CHANGE
China is by no means alone in pursuing change, but it is better positioned and more motivated to achieve it than most other countries because of its reliance on fossil fuel imports, huge manufacturing capacities and air pollution problems.
There are concerns that the implied rise in electricity demand as a result of transport electrification will overwhelm the capacity to deploy and integrate thousands of gigawatts of additional renewable generation capacity into China’s electricity grid.
China may be forced back into reliance on coal to power its growing fleet of EVs, thereby offsetting the impact of reduced vehicle emissions with higher power plant emissions.
This could prove a self-limiting factor that encourages more gradual change in what will, in any case, be a decadal process.
However, the lesson to be drawn from China’s massive refining expansion is not that it represents an immovable barrier to the uptake of EVs, but that when Beijing puts its mind to a vast industrial endeavor, it generally delivers.
Nonetheless, the implications for oil exporting countries of a gradual decline in Chinese crude oil imports are major.
China has been by far the single largest factor in oil demand growth over the last 15 years.
It is far more important to international markets than the US, which has managed to increase its own oil production and reduce its import bill — effectively keeping the hydrocarbon economy in-house, which itself may prove a barrier to change in the US.
A peak in oil demand, which has been predicted before 2040 by some oil companies and forecasters implies a concentration on only the cheapest oil production, which remains the Middle East. Higher cost producers will suffer.
There would be little incentive, for example, to develop the remaining reserves of the North Sea, or to head off further into the Barents and Arctic, a direction still thought inevitable only a few years ago.
Declining stakes in oil and gas production might reduce the barriers to change in other countries, which may, as in Europe, be more highly motivated to adopt EVs by the desire to combat global climate change.
Europe, like China, is dependent on fossil fuel imports and therefore has every reason to pursue economically viable alternatives.
Certainly other countries would seek to emulate China’s lead. India notably is leaping into renewables generation, although primarily as a means of reducing its own reliance on coal-fired generation, but it is also pursuing industrial policies to redress its relative lack of manufacturing capacity.
Emulation of China would provide Chinese companies with new opportunities for the export of EVs and other renewable technologies, just as it has with e-buses and solar panels.
China’s adoption of the New Energy Economy would be a win for both its domestic economys and its export industries.
–Ross McCracken, [email protected]
71 Comments on "China and the New Energy Economy"
Davy on Thu, 2nd Nov 2017 2:16 pm
Dumb n Dutch not hard to sit on you nuts and program. Obviously your mind is not very deep and the amount of work you do great because you are on this board all day and night. You are always talking about demanding work to take you away from the board that never materializes.
Davy on Thu, 2nd Nov 2017 2:20 pm
Ape, you get too serious sometimes and dive into something that is just shallow talk with an asswipe. Relax and go for a nice walk in your beautiful city. Work ethic in this case means doing something productive to justify a bag of shit.
Hello on Thu, 2nd Nov 2017 2:40 pm
>> there is such a thing as a work ethic
yes, there is
>> I don’t have any work ethic
Yes we know. Somebody who doesn’t finish high school usually fits that description.
Apneaman on Thu, 2nd Nov 2017 3:22 pm
Davy, you think I was being serious?
The only thing I’m serious about is my duty of protecting little girls in Africa and that’s why Rick Perry is my HERO.
Rick Perry says fossil fuels can help prevent sexual assault
“During an event with Axios and NBC in Washington, D.C., Perry brought up sexual assault after launching into a story about a trip to Africa, where he said “people are dying” because they don’t have access to energy.
“And it’s going to take fossil fuels to push power out into those villages in Africa, where a young girl said to my face, ‘One of the reasons that electricity is so important to me is not only because I’m not going to have to try and read by the light of a fire and have those fumes literally kill people,” Perry said.
He continued: “But also from the standpoint of sexual assault. When the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will, on those types of acts.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rick-perry-says-fossil-fuels-can-help-prevent-sexual-assault/
Truly, it don’t get any better than that.
Davy on Thu, 2nd Nov 2017 3:44 pm
Whatever floats your boat ape. I am glad you are happy and all that. Give those fuckers hell and kick ass and take names.
DerHundistlos on Thu, 2nd Nov 2017 4:00 pm
Walls and Militarized Police: How Israel Is Exporting Its Occupation to the United States
Israel’s illegal tactics are now the model through which the U.S. plans to police its cities, monitor its borders and define its relationship with its neighbors.
https://www.alternet.org/world/walls-and-militarized-police-how-israel-exporting-its-occupation-united-states?akid=16306.171755.6wHeL-&rd=1&src=newsletter1084654&t=36
Cloggie on Thu, 2nd Nov 2017 4:01 pm
“Whatever floats your boat ape. I am glad you are happy and all that. Give those fuckers hell and kick ass and take names.”
Something beautiful is now blossoming between trailer-park Dave and the TalmudTurk, after I explained to Davy that Ap is in reality an empire supporter, where Ap in the old days was booked by Davy as an “anti-American” libtard from the West Coast.
Now Ap is stuck with a goy, who is in love with him.
#CantStopLaughing
Davy on Thu, 2nd Nov 2017 4:36 pm
Look at dumb n Dutch he doesn’t get a joke. This is probably becuase he is a dork. Many IT guys are dorks. No wonder his reality is so distorted. Dumb, leave the house occasionally. Go play in the tulips and frolick on the dikes. You need something to wash off that dumbass.
Cloggie on Thu, 2nd Nov 2017 4:46 pm
http://tinyurl.com/ydbsysjb
Hey them death camp Nazis were very efficient and put in tons of hours – they had a great work ethic when it came to genocide.
I have more respect for the work ethic of those who assembled all the lies, we are stuck with until today.
Davy on Thu, 2nd Nov 2017 5:16 pm
what a dumb holocaust denier. I thought Nazi’s like you would be proud of your work!
Apneaman on Thu, 2nd Nov 2017 6:24 pm
Hello, that’s right, I did not finish high school because I left it out of sheer fucking boredom and went to work in the bush. Perhaps for you graduating from government high school was an accomplishment? I already had all the tools I needed by the time I was 13. Not from the system. From my father. See whereas the system taught you what to think and gave you a strict preset number of years for your so called education, my father taught me how to think and made it clear that your education only ends at death.
My brother stayed in school, straight A’s, band, very artistic, honor roll and all that good shit and went to college and is a corporate man to this day. Makes good money too. Me, I don’t need to work another day as long as I live and haven’t since I was 45.
Oh if only I had stayed in school. Just think, I could be enjoying that Vancouver commuter traffic right now…in the rain.
Want to hear the funniest part? Both my parents were university educated teachers.
makati1 on Thu, 2nd Nov 2017 7:15 pm
Those who are interested in tomorrow might want to read this:
“The Real “New World Order” Is Coming To Life – Rory Hall”
“If you want to see what is going to change the lives of your children and grandchildren, look no further than the map published below. This is WHERE the future will be, regardless of the naysayers. The Belt and Road Initiative is going to transform the world and, once this project is 25-30% complete – within the next 5-7 years – the impact will be felt globally.
Natural resources will be funneled into the Eastern countries, or they will simply never leave from the country they mined or extracted. Global employees will disappear from Western market places as their services will be needed in the East and so it will go right down the line. Buckle up kids, as we are going to be faced with a very bumpy ride unless the criminal scum holding onto yesterday suddenly have their “come to Jesus” moment and realize they are outside looking in.”
https://www.sprottmoney.com/Blog/the-real-new-world-order-is-coming-to-life-rory-hall.html
“No since in acting like this is not happening or that China is going to run out funds or somehow not be able to complete this project – you would be 100% wrong in that assessment. The Belt and Road Initiative is going to place China back at the head of the global economy; exactly where she was until the West all but destroyed the nation with the opium wars beginning in the early part of the 1800’s. China, up until that time, was the worlds only super-power and the worlds largest economy. China occupied these positions before these positions were measured/known – she just was and the world knew it. The day for her to reclaim the throne is coming, what it will mean for the rest of the world, at this time. is unknown.”
I read this a while back and it rang true.
Davy on Thu, 2nd Nov 2017 7:36 pm
The belt and road initiative is mostly hype. Why reinvent the wheel not to mention the cost. This is just more fantasy to keep the illusions of growth in China alive.
makati1 on Fri, 3rd Nov 2017 3:02 am
The water is heating up in the petrodollar frog pot. lol
“Saudi Arabia, however, is heavily dependent on the US and has thus far refused to settle its accounts in renminbi. And that rebuff is costing the country dearly: Beijing is gradually finding other suppliers to take Riyadh’s place. The Saudis used to be China’s biggest foreign supplier of oil, but recently Russia has squeezed them out for that number-one spot. If this continues, Saudi Aramco might lose its Chinese market altogether. …
Although Beijing is upping its pressure on Riyadh, it is also simultaneously offering to directly buy out 5% of Saudi Aramco, while allowing the Saudis to forgo the usual ritual of listing shares on Western stock markets. And China is prepared to shell out a “fair” price (about $100 billion). The Chinese government has already announced that it is forming a consortium of energy and finance companies, plus China’s sovereign wealth fund, in order to purchase a “chunk” of the Saudi company. …
Beijing’s winning move in its chess game against Washington has neutralized the US threat to disrupt the sale of Saudi Aramco, while simultaneously pushing Riyadh toward a decision to transition Saudi oil sales to the renminbi.”
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/11/02/intrigue-heart-beijing-riyadh-washington-triangle.html
Only a matter of time…
Cloggie on Fri, 3rd Nov 2017 4:31 am
The belt and road initiative is mostly hype. Why reinvent the wheel not to mention the cost. This is just more fantasy to keep the illusions of growth in China alive.
Wheelbarrow Davy, who yesterday opined that “sitting on your nuts all day” doesn’t count as real work and as such nullifies the work of millions of authors, scientists, engineers and thinkers in general, has to dismiss the conclusions of this academic, who, by “sitting on his nuts all day”, comes to the conclusion that this New Silk Road initiative is anything but bogus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GygmGSwvcI
Davy, the typical anti-intellectual, who never reads books about history (“waste of time”), but nevertheless promotes the lies of the US empire about history by name-calling and always avoiding discussions, he knows he would lose anyway.
Pathetic clown.
Davy on Fri, 3rd Nov 2017 4:49 am
“comes to the conclusion that this New Silk Road initiative is anything but bogus:”
Sure dumb n dutch, coming from somebody who has zero business and financial knowledge. Yea, dumb show me all the results of the Chinese talk. Remember the Bric bank. That was a lot of talk and photo ops. I look forward to seeing more Ghost cities and highways to nowhere that new initiative will bring forth. How about all that increased debt. China already has 300% debt to GDP. What is a little more for a stupid initiative dreamed up by fake black haired old Chinese technocrats lost in unreality. That will likely mean plenty more coal plants to further destroy the climate and development destroying many pristine ecosystems. Yea that is something you would be proud of because you could give a shit about the environment and climate.
“Davy, the typical anti-intellectual, who never reads books about history (“waste of time”)”
I don’t revise history and I bet my library is bigger than yours. What history is in your library? The history of Jew baiters and Mein Kampf.
“but nevertheless promotes the lies of the US empire about history by name-calling and always avoiding discussions, he knows he would lose anyway.”
I don’t promote the US empire. I neuter your fantasy future. I name call and shoot down your lies whenever possible. You earn respect and if you disrespect then you get your ass kicked pussy. I have proven this with mad kat and now you are board enemy. What’s da matter pussy am I getting under your skin. It sucks being moderated and neutered right, dumb. I love kicking your ass daily. It gives me great enjoyment. Liars and assholes are fun to beat up.
Davy on Fri, 3rd Nov 2017 4:59 am
“Beijing’s winning move in its chess game against Washington has neutralized the US threat to disrupt the sale of Saudi Aramco, while simultaneously pushing Riyadh toward a decision to transition Saudi oil sales to the renminbi.”
Mad kat, we had three very good articles dashing all the fake talk on the death of the petro dollar and the US dollar as a reserve currency. It is clear China does not have what it takes for a reserve currency. It is just hype and hype is something you and dumb n Dutch live on. The world is stuck with the dollar until globalism financially collapses then there will likely be nothing or something much simpler. If you want to debate this subject lets debate the articles I referenced with the words. I asked you for a debate but you refused. Could that be because you dropped out of college and became a construction laborer? Nothing wrong with being a construction laborer until you try to talk like you are an academic when you are not. I love listening to you and dumb n dutch talk about financial and economic subjects. You two binary clowns are only about winning and losing in relation to your anti-American agendas. Reality means nothing to you losers. Go back down to the pool and eat your pretzels and drink your San Miguel.
Davy on Fri, 3rd Nov 2017 5:10 am
Mad kat and dumb n dutch, is this how China is going to fund the belt and road initiative?
“Anbang? Evergrande? Or Does HNA’s Bond Sale Mark The Beginning Of China’s Minsky Moment?”
http://tinyurl.com/y7fkuts6
We know… there are several candidates to choose from. For example…It might be Anbang – the acquisitive insurance behemoth – see “Anbang Just Became A ‘Systemic Risk’: Revenues Crash As Its Chairman Is “Detained” It might be China Evergrande – the developer of “ghost” properties and described by J Capital’s, Anne Stevenson-Yang as “the biggest pyramid scheme the world has yet seen” – see “Stevenson-Yang Warns ‘China Is About To Hit A Wall”. Or…it might be HNA. The highly-leveraged Chinese conglomerate, which has been on an overseas acquisition binge, is paying more for a 363-day dollar loan than serial defaulter, Argentina, paid on a 100-year loan earlier this year. HNA has $28bn of short-term debt coming due before the end of June 2018, most of which has been accumulated during the last two years. As Bloomberg reports, HNA Group Co., which once symbolized China’s insatiable appetite for overseas assets, is offering to sell the country’s most expensive short-term dollar bond ever as it tries to refinance a wall of maturing debt amid government scrutiny. The company is marketing a 363-day bond at nine percent which is expected to price Thursday to refinance offshore debt, according to a person familiar with the offering, who isn’t authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified. The previous record was Herun Holdings Ltd.’s eight percent notes sold in September…See the interview on the HNA bond offering with Bloomberg’s Lianting Tu.
Davy on Fri, 3rd Nov 2017 5:19 am
Russia and China will give them more money right, mad kat. China loves throwing good money after bad. They have so much fake money anyway.
“Tomorrow Will Be Ugly”: Venezuela To Restructure All Debt As Creditors Panic Over Imminent Default”
http://tinyurl.com/ya8hfohc
“One week ago, we and many others wondered, if the time has finally come for Venezuela, which was facing a “no grace period” $842 million principal payment for bonds issued by state-run energy company PDVSA, to default on its billions of unrepayable obligations. As we reported then, the liquidity crisis for Venezuela was especially acute because even if it did make the first PDVSA payment, it was facing a second, even larger one today, when PDVSA had to make another $1.121BN payment.”
“It now appears that that is indeed the case, and the long overdue Venezuela default, which has been speculated ever since 2014, is finally nigh, because during a nationwide TV address, Venezuela’s socialist president Nicolas Maduro said the country will seek to restructure its global debt after the state-owned oil company makes the PDVSA payment due at midnight. Maduro blamed a financial blockade that is preventing the nation from rolling over its debt, according to Bloomberg.”
Davy on Fri, 3rd Nov 2017 5:30 am
Is the Belt and Road initiative more Irrational investment?
“China’s Unending M&A Squeeze”
http://tinyurl.com/y8jkygkj
“Overseas acquisitions by Chinese buyers have tumbled from last year’s record levels after the government made it harder to move yuan out of the country on concern that the buying spree was adding to financial risks. Authorities have taken particular aim at what the planning agency has called “irrational” investments.”
Davy on Fri, 3rd Nov 2017 5:38 am
“Get Ready for an Appalachian Gas Bonanza”
http://tinyurl.com/ycxs9bdu
“The pathway is for a pipeline that will bring huge amounts of natural gas out of sparsely populated Appalachia and into big cities across the Midwest. The pipeline, called Rover, is being built by Energy Transfer Partners LP, of Dallas, which has spent three years and a total $4.2 billion on the painstaking process of winning permits, clearing miles of rugged terrain, and fighting a pitched legal battle against environmental groups and landowners. Rover is scheduled to begin shipping as much as 3.25 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day in early 2018. When fed through a natural gas-fired power plant, that’s enough to power about 30 million homes. Rover is one of a handful of pipelines set to open next year that will begin moving natural gas from the massive Marcellus and Utica shale formations that lie beneath parts of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York.”