China’s Temu App: Not An Amazon Killer, A Dollar Store Killer
October 5th, 2023
Via Bloomberg, a look at how China’s Temu is chipping away at the stranglehold that retailers such as Dollar General and Dollar Tree have over low-income and discount shoppers: Retail industry watchers are saying that Amazon.com Inc. has met its match with the viral popularity of online shopping app Temu. Owned by China’s PDD Holdings Inc., Temu […]
Read more »How to Break China’s Hold on Batteries and Critical Minerals
October 5th, 2023
Courtesy of Foreign Policy, a commentary on how the security of clean energy is easier to manage than the security of oil; The rapid growth of electric vehicle sales finally makes real the prospect of curbing the United States’ addiction to oil, as former President George W. Bush called it, limiting climate change, and reducing […]
Read more »China’s Green Tech Giants Link Supply Chains To Southeast Asia
October 4th, 2023
Courtesy of Nikkei Asia, a look at how – from Indonesia to Vietnam – ‘clean energy’ ties ASEAN more closely to Beijing despite South China Sea tensions Just a stone’s throw from a seaside resort popular with tourists, a new industrial complex is expanding on Indonesia’s Bintan island, which lies across a narrow strait from […]
Read more »China’s Belt and Road Shows the High Price of Beijing’s Money
October 4th, 2023
Via Bloomberg, commentary on the high price of the BRI: Birthdays are in equal parts celebratory but also inherently tinged with regret, for opportunities missed and mistakes made. All of which may well be weighing on Beijing as its Belt and Road Initiative marks its 10th anniversary this year. For the most part, it has […]
Read more »Taliban Urge Japan To Invest In Afghanistan’s Minerals, Metals
October 4th, 2023
Courtesy of Nikkei Asia, a report on the Taliban’s outreach to Japan for mineral investments: Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have called on Japan to invest in the country’s unexploited minerals and metals amid a rush by Chinese investors into the country. The Taliban is banking on investments in its untapped minerals to lift the country out […]
Read more »Oz-Indonesia Tie-Up Could Break China’s EV Battery Supremacy
October 4th, 2023
Via the Asia Times, a report on an alliance that could put Australia in global battery supply chains, make Indonesia an EV battery hub and support the US-led Mineral Security Partnership: Lithium-ion batteries, composed of minerals including lithium, nickel and cobalt, have the potential to be game-changers in decarbonization. However, their efficacy is contingent upon […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.