How Indonesia Used Chinese Industrial Investments to Turn Nickel into the New Gold
June 13th, 2024
Via the Carnegie Endowment, a report on how China’s Belt and Road Initiative helped build an industrial complex in Indonesia—but contestations at the local and national levels compelled Chinese players to adapt to rapidly shifting Indonesian cross-currents. Summary The Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) in Central Sulawesi is one of the largest Chinese investments in Indonesia, […]
Read more »Japan’s Convenience Store Chains Chase Growth Across Asia
June 7th, 2024
Courtesy of Nikkei Asia, an interesting article on Japan’s convenience store chains having to look abroad in Asia for more growth: It’s 50 years since Kenji Yamamoto opened the doors at what would become part of the fabric of Japan: the country’s first modern-day convenience store. But 50 years from now, Japan’s population is projected […]
Read more »Need Nickel? How Electrifying Transport and Chinese Investment Are Playing Out in the Indonesian Archipelago
May 22nd, 2024
Via the Baker Institute for Public Policy, a report on the interplay between global EV ambitions and Chinese investment in the Indonesian archipelago: On March 8, 2022, the London Metals Exchange (LME) abruptly halted trading in nickel, which had reached a stunning $100,000 per tonne. As noted in many news sources, the LME events were […]
Read more »Indonesia Bets Big on Electric Vehicles
May 10th, 2024
Via Foreign Policy, an article on Jakarta’s big bet on the green transition: “It took 40 or 50 years to industrialize China,” said Rachmat Kaimuddin, Indonesia’s deputy coordinating minister for investment and maritime affairs. “We may have to be faster.” Indonesia’s government has set an ambitious target of becoming a developed nation by 2045—partially through […]
Read more »Without Indonesia’s Nickel, EVs Have No Future in America
May 2nd, 2024
Courtesy of Foreign Policy, commentary on how the U.S. IRA and Senate opposition to a free trade deal with Jakarta are undermining the United States’ green transition: Without Indonesian nickel, the United States’ electric vehicle market will flounder. My nation sits on the world’s largest reserves of the metal that is central to EV batteries. […]
Read more »Visualizing Global Gold Production in 2023
May 1st, 2024
Via Visual Capitalist, an interesting graphic of global production and the large number of frontier markets on the list: Over 3,000 tonnes of gold were produced globally in 2023. In this graphic, we list the world’s leading countries in terms of gold production. These figures come from the latest USGS publication on gold statistics (published January 2024). […]
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.