Managing The Dragon

The global economy is much more stable today than it was at this time last year, but that doesn’t make 2010 any easier to predict. In January 2009, the debate was all about numbers. Would China’s economy grow by 8 percent as the government was predicting, 7.2 percent as the World Bank concluded, or considerably [...]

Periodically, China announces a new industrial policy directed at one or another of its industries. During the past year, the government announced plans to consolidate both steel and automotive. The reason: too many players and too much fragmentation. The announcement of these policies typically triggers a stream of questions about what this means for competitors [...]

The Obama Administration has lowered its expectations for what the President may accomplish on his four-nation Asia trip, which begins today in Japan, and also includes visits to Singapore, China and South Korea. As reported in The Wall Street Journal: Administration officials say the President isn’t likely to bring along tangible concessions on hot-button issues, [...]

It’s a fact of life: economic forces within China tend to create overcapacity in every industry. Outside of China, rising quality and technology requirements and the forces of competition have reduced the numbers of companies making most products to a handful of global players. Yet, hundreds of companies may be making the same or similar [...]

It was not a good day for China’s steelmakers. What BHP Billiton couldn’t accomplish in iron ore by buying all of Rio Tinto, it will now accomplish in a 50/50 mining joint venture between the two companies. As a result of its new agreement with BHP, Rio Tinto decided to scrap the proposed $19.5 billion [...]

China recently announced that it’s preparing a three-year plan to consolidate its steel industry. Details will be announced in March, but the basic idea is to form three large steel groups, with each having a capacity of over 50 million metric tons by 2011. Shanghai-based Baosteel Group, Wuhan Iron & Steel, and the combined group [...]

Not surprisingly, Chinalco and Rio Tinto are in discussions regarding the former taking a larger stake in the Australian mining company and purchasing minority stakes in some of its units. MTD has followed the Rio Tinto story over the past 18 months, and in our last article, Rio Tinto: Time For A Package Deal, I [...]