Earlier this week we presented a couple of points of view regarding the role of urbanization in China and how that trend relates to growth of aluminum end use markets. In that post we cited three speakers from the recent 3rd Annual Harbor Aluminum Conference here in Chicago. Two of the speakers we covered and [...]
Wolfgang Münchau, an experienced Financial Times columnist with over twenty years in the trenches reporting on the European market laid out the stark options for Europe in an article this week. In its current form, the Euro won’t see out this decade he said. The fundamental problem being that Europe’s political leaders and their economic [...]
Though we at MetalMiner tend to spend quite a bit of time talking about primary metals markets, the discussions and updates from industry participants in downstream markets offered to attendees at last week’s 3rd Annual Harbor Aluminum Conference provided some interesting insight into demand. Two of those end use segments we’ll examine today and these [...]
There have been numerous dire warnings in the western press over the last 6-9 months about the Chinese economy. Talk has centered on a housing bubble, inflation in wages and a generally over-heated economy. There have even been questions raised about how sound many of the loans made as part of the government inspired stimulus [...]
Never one to mince his words, veteran investor George Soros called on Germany to change its policies or withdraw from the currency union for the sake of the rest of Europe according to a Telegraph article last week. In a hard hitting interview with the German weekly Die Zeit, Mr. Soros is quoted as saying, [...]
One of the most interesting sessions from last week’s 3rd Annual Harbor Aluminum Conference involved a discussion on using Western forecasting methods to determine aluminum usage (and particularly growth) within China. We attendees were treated to three points of view on the subject and each speaker presented some thought-provoking commentary. The first speaker, Paul Adkins, [...]
Standard Bank ran an interesting analysis of current palladium movements last week in an investors note. While cautioning that the evaluation of import and export data is only one part of a much larger supply/demand and investor sentiment dynamic we would agree there are some interesting directional trends highlighted by the bank’s analysis. Broadly the [...]
As the fall out continues from the Gulf oil spill, and we don’t just mean in BP’s share price, the repercussions are being felt all over the country like ripples spreading in a pond. We wrote last week about the likely increase in emphasis President Obama would seek to place on renewable energy sources and [...]