It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Trans Mountain oil pipeline begins filling ahead of final construction challenges
The last section of pipeline is assembled on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project before operations are expected to begin in the second quarter of 2024, next to the Fraser River near Laidlaw, British Columbia, Canada, February 18, 2024.
HOUSTON (Reuters) -Canada's Trans Mountain Corp has begun filling its pipeline expansion with oil in a staged process, a senior executive said on Wednesday, as construction of the long-delayed project nears an end.
The pipeline expansion faces technical challenges in the next two weeks as it finishes the last segment in British Columbia, Chief Financial Officer Mark Maki told Reuters.
"We feel good about progress," Maki said on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. "We've got some key technical things that are coming up here in the coming week or two. And once those are done, I think it should be relatively smooth sailing."
The Canadian government-owned C$34-billion ($25 billion)pipeline expansion will nearly triple the flow of crude from Alberta to Canada's Pacific Coast to 890,000 barrels per day, but has been plagued by years of delays, construction problems and cost overruns.
The pipeline, scheduled to be in service in the second quarter, is expected to raise Canadian crude prices just as producers boost production.
One of the technical challenges involves stringing pipeline through hard rock in the final segment, Maki said. Trans Mountain received approval from the Canada Energy Regulator to use smaller-diameter pipe on that segment.
Related video: Imperial Oil speaks up on pipeline shutdown impacting Winnipeg area (Global News) Duration 0:53 View on Watch
The pipeline will be highly utilized as early as next year and run full in 2025-26, Maki said.
The Canadian government has said it plans to sell the pipeline. Maki said a sale this year is unlikely.
"You've got a few uncertainties. I suspect that you know, any buyer would want to have it cleared before you would really look at a sale process," he said.
Along with completing construction, Trans Mountain is in dispute with shippers over tolls it wants to charge, a situation that the regulator is likely to resolve in early 2025, Maki said.
Bloomberg reported Suncor Energy has sold one of the first cargoes to be shipped through the expansion to China's Sinochem Group. Sinochem and Suncor did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Maki declined to comment.
($1 = 1.3576 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; additional reporting by Florence Tan; editing by David Evans and Marguerita Choy)
How a last-minute Liberal scramble neutralized the NDP's attempt to recognize a Palestinian state
Story by Catherine Lévesque , Christopher Nardi , Ryan Tumilty
OTTAWA – Minutes before MPs were set to vote on a controversial NDP motion to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, a senior Liberal staffer bolted out of the NDP’s lobby in the House of Commons with a stack of papers in hand.
He dashed around the U-shaped precinct that surrounds the House chamber, briefly ducked into the Liberal lobby, then continued the mad scramble to get the papers to government House leader Steven MacKinnon.
MacKinnon was set to speak in the House in just a few minutes. When he was done, MPs would vote on the highly controversial NDP motion that recognized Palestinian statehood and, among other things, called for an arms embargo against Israel and a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas — without calling on the latter to lay down arms.
The details of the drama that unfolded Monday night over that motion — the frenzied last-minute negotiations, the surprise rewrite, the significant climbdown by the NDP from its most controversial demands — came to light Tuesday after MPs had time to digest the startling episode. National Post interviewed several people close to the events to piece together what happened that led to the divisive motion being watered down until it became palatable enough to easily pass the House.
Motions are not binding on the government. Still, most Liberals, including the entire cabinet, had said they would not support the original NDP motion unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state without multiple amendments.
On Monday night, those amendments — finally agreed upon in extremis between the Liberals and NDP after days of tense negotiations — were now in the hands of the senior Liberal staffer, who needed to get them to MacKinnon, the Liberal House leader, before his time was up and the vote was called.
The vote was expected to happen around 7:30 p.m.
Around 7:09 p.m., MacKinnon was shuffling with a new stack of papers that had arrived on his desk in the House. He stood up and, reading from papers scribbled with pen marks and edits, announced he was tabling last-second amendments.
Only a handful of people were aware of the amendments before MacKinnon dropped them in the House of Commons. One Liberal confirmed most government MPs were unaware of what was being proposed until MacKinnon read them into the record.
Then Liberals held their breath until the sponsor of the motion, the NDP’s foreign affairs critic, Heather McPherson, stood up and said she consented to the amendments. “It wasn’t done until it was done,” a senior Liberal staffer confided after the fact.
The NDP motion, on the docket since February, was supposed to be debated on March 1, but then former prime minister Brian Mulroney died on Feb. 29, the House rose out of respect, and the debate was delayed as MPs went off to two consecutive break weeks in their ridings.
Yet, Liberals and New Democrats only started to negotiate amendments to the motion in the last few days, with MacKinnon and his NDP counterpart, Peter Julian, working to hammer out prospective details over this past weekend and the Liberal cabinet holding an emergency meeting on Saturday.
It was far from a smooth process. Although the NDP has for years been supporting the minority Liberal government with a supply-and-confidence agreement, the talks between both parties had appeared to have stalled by midday Monday. An NDP source said at the time that the Liberals wanted to keep the policy “status quo and turn this into a self-congratulatory motion.”
“Ultimately, we walked away,” said McPherson in an interview Tuesday. “I was quite confident that there was not going to be a deal. I had people in tears on the phone telling me how heartbroken they were that we couldn’t get something passed.”
Midday on Monday, Joly stood in the House to declare that there were “issues” with the text of the original motion and hinted that cabinet would not agree to it. Canada’s policy has long been that recognizing a Palestinian state would come as part of a larger peace deal between Israelis and the Palestinian leadership. The government, she said “can’t change foreign policy based on an opposition motion.”
“Over the last few days, we were pretty far apart to be honest. They tried to soften a whole bunch of stuff that we couldn’t live with,” said McPherson, adding that points of contention remained around Palestinian statehood and arms exports to Israel.
A Liberal source speaking on background mentioned the original motion was not balanced, nor did it reflect the government’s view. Despite that, several Liberal MPs came out publicly to say they would still support the NDP’s original motion.
Ultimately, talks resumed late Monday afternoon in hopes of finding a compromise. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly took the unusual step of intervening in the process at the 11th hour to make sure some version of the motion would pass, wanting to show she could find a path forward to ensure Liberals could support it.
McPherson said Joly “came in and hunted me down in the opposition lobby.”
As the motion came down to the wire, a Liberal source said Joly was running back and forth between the Prime Minister’s Office, the government House leader’s office and the NDP lobby to smooth out the final sticking points to reach an agreement that would satisfy all parties.
“There were two weeks between when we tabled this and when it came to the House. And the Liberals left it till the last minute and thought that they would be able to get something done. Frankly, it was frustrating to work with them,” said McPherson in an interview.
In the end, the amended motion included modified language to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel to ensure compliance with Canada’s arms export regime” and a clear demand for Hamas to “lay down its arms.”
Instead of recognizing a Palestinian state, it called on the government to “work with international partners to actively pursue the goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East, including towards the establishment of the State of Palestine as part of a negotiated two-state solution.”
Late Monday after the vote, Joly said the government wanted a motion it could stand behind and this motion reflects the government’s position.
“This is clearly the intent of this government to make sure that we follow what is written in this motion and that is why we’ve worked very hard to make sure that we could get to a text where we could abide by it,” she said.
McPherson said she is not completely satisfied with the end result, but pointed out what she considers some wins.
“We’re a G7 country that has agreed that we are going to stop sending arms to Israel. That is huge. That is a massive thing,” she said. “The fact that we now have language on an end to the decades-long illegal occupation, this is big, big stuff.”
Conservatives and a handful of Liberal MPs had opposed the last-minute changes, arguing that they had been debating all day a motion that no longer existed.
“This amendment has been dropped with … substantive changes to the original motion, which no member in this place has had a chance to look at or debate,” said Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner to Deputy House Speaker Chris d’Entremont.
Liberal MP Marco Mendicino echoed his colleague’s sentiment from across the aisle. “I think what you are hearing is a concern that the very elaborate amendments that have just been introduced by the government House leader have not been debated,” he said.
The amendments had been so rushed, there was no French translation available, which annoyed the Bloc Québécois.
D’Entremont said he wished it were within his power to delay the vote until Tuesday but could not because MPs had previously agreed to hold the vote the same day as the debate.
Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer attempted to obtain unanimous consent to defer the vote but failed. The vote on the heavily amended motion finally happened late Monday night — two hours after it had been originally expected.
Julian asked for a recorded vote for this “historic” moment, which saw the NDP, the Bloc, the Greens and most Liberals vote in favour of the motion. All the Conservatives and Liberal MPs Mendicino, Anthony Housefather and Ben Carr voted against the motion.
“Canada must play a constructive role in the Middle East, but our foreign policy should not be negotiated on the back of an opposition motion,” said Mendicino in a statement.
After the vote, Joly congratulated herself and her NDP counterparts for being able to “work all together and to find common ground.” McPherson said the debate on the motion was a “historic” moment, but she said she expects more to be done.
“We will use whatever tools we have within our toolbox to move this conversation forward,” she said.
National Post
Motion on Israel-Hamas war will have consequences for asylum seekers in Gaza: Miller
OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Marc Miller says the amended motion on the Israel-Hamas war the House of Commons passed Monday could make it harder for people seeking asylum in Canada to get out of Gaza.
He says it could make the situation worse for a Canadian program that has already been, in his words, a "failure."
Miller says he thinks the motion was fair and principled after it was altered to reflect 14 amendments proposed by the Liberals.
The final motion eliminated a standalone call to recognize Palestinian statehood and instead saw MPs support progress toward a peace process and a two-state solution as per existing Canadian policy.
But Miller says the motion has upset Israel's government and will have consequences.
Israel's foreign minister said Tuesday that measures outlined in the motion, including the suspension of arms exports to Israel, would undermine his country's ability to defend itself — and that history would judge Canada harshly.
Miller told reporters Wednesday morning that the government always knew the program to offer asylum to extended family members of Canadians who are in the Gaza Strip could fail.
Only 14 people have been able to get out. The motion could have consequences for others who are waiting, he said.
"The adoption of that motion doesn't help getting people out."
He said the Israeli government has made it clear that it is watching what Canada does.
"And any actions that are seen as to be unfavourable can affect their decision-making at the highest political level," Miller said.
"And so we can't be naive as a country as to the actions that we take and the impact that can have on the ground and for actual people's lives."
Miller said he was not saying that the motion was "a bad thing to adopt," adding it represented a "principled position" as amended.
"But the actions of the government of Canada (have) consequences. And on the particular impact of that program, I don't think that motion is necessarily a good thing."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2024.
FEMICIDE
Women’s anxiety soars over threats to physical femininity, study finds
Threats to women’s physical femininity can significantly increase anxiety and reduce self-esteem, according to new research published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. This research challenges previous notions that only men react negatively to threats against their gender stereotypicality, offering a new understanding of how gender stereotypes affect women, particularly in terms of their physical appearance.
Women have been advised to adopt traditionally masculine behaviors to succeed in various spheres of life. Despite such trends towards gender nonconformity, the impact of gender stereotypes, especially concerning physical appearance, on psychological well-being remained underexplored.
Previous studies predominantly focused on the psychological aspects of gender stereotyping, often overlooking the significance of physical appearance in shaping individuals’ experiences with gender conformity. This gap motivated Yale University researchers to conduct the current study, which sought to examine the psychological effects of perceived threats to gender stereotypicality in physical appearance among women and to compare these effects with those experienced by men.
To investigate these potential effects, the researchers first conducted a series of three experiments that involved manipulating feedback regarding women’s physical femininity. In total, 920 participants for these studies were recruited online, utilizing platforms such as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and Prolific Academic. The recruitment process ensured a diverse sample of cisgender women, aiming to capture a wide range of responses to the experimental manipulations.
Related video: One in six men, ages 16-29, say 'feminism has done more harm than good,' study shows (MSNBC) Duration 6:19 View on Watch
Participants were randomly assigned to receive either affirming or threatening feedback about their physical appearance, specifically their facial femininity. This feedback was carefully crafted to suggest to participants that their facial characteristics either conformed to or deviated from typical gender norms. To bolster the credibility of this feedback, participants were informed that a neural network-based image analysis software assessed their facial appearance against a database of gender and age-group norms.
In addition to manipulating feedback on physical femininity, the experiments also controlled for variables such as perceived physical attractiveness. This was to ensure that any psychological effects observed could be attributed to perceptions of gender stereotypicality rather than general attractiveness. Measures of state anxiety and self-esteem were administered to assess the psychological impact of the feedback.
A consistent pattern emerged where cisgender women reported higher levels of state anxiety when they received feedback suggesting their physical appearance was less feminine than average, compared to when they received affirming feedback regarding their femininity.
Surprisingly, these threats to physical femininity did not significantly affect participants’ self-perceived physical attractiveness, suggesting that the anxiety induced by femininity threats was not merely a byproduct of concerns over general attractiveness. This finding emphasizes the distinct psychological significance of gender conformity in physical appearance, separate from attractiveness.
The researchers expanded upon these initial findings by comparing the responses of both women and men to threats to their gender stereotypicality, encompassing both physical appearance and personality domains. For this experiment, the researchers recruited a sample of 822 women and 752 men via Prolific.
The participants were instructed to record and submit videos of themselves, which were then purportedly analyzed by neural network-based software to assess either the femininity/masculinity of their physical appearance or their personality. The feedback provided was crafted to either affirm or threaten the participant’s conformity to gender stereotypes within the designated domain.
Women reported increased state anxiety and decreased self-esteem in response to threats to their physical femininity compared to when their physical femininity was affirmed. This effect was specific to the domain of physical appearance, as threats to psychological femininity did not elicit the same psychological response, underscoring the particular salience of physical appearance in women’s experiences of gender stereotypicality.
In contrast, men showed heightened anxiety in response to masculinity threats, but this effect was observed across both domains of physical appearance and personality. Surprisingly, the effect was particularly pronounced for threats to physical masculinity, suggesting that, similar to women, men also place significant psychological importance on conforming to gender stereotypes in physical appearance.
Additionally, the study found that threats to physical femininity, but not psychological femininity, led to reduced self-esteem among women, highlighting the unique vulnerability of women’s self-esteem to perceptions of physical gender conformity. Conversely, men did not exhibit a significant change in self-esteem in response to masculinity threats, suggesting possible differences in how gender stereotypicality threats impact self-esteem across genders.
An exploratory analysis suggested that felt identity invalidation — particularly the discrepancy between the feedback received and participants’ internal sense of self — might serve as a mechanism explaining the increased anxiety and decreased self-esteem among women facing physical femininity threats. This finding provides a potential psychological pathway through which gender stereotypicality threats exert their effects, although further research using validated measures is needed to confirm this relationship.
“Although past work has demonstrated that women do not experience anxiety in response to threats to their psychological femininity, the present studies reveal that women do, indeed, experience heightened levels of anxiety—as well as reduced levels of self-esteem—in response to threats to the femininity of their physical appearance,” the researchers concluded. “Furthermore, the current studies provide evidence that these effects are not the result of women interpreting threats to their physical femininity as threats to their physical attractiveness. Rather, they may result from a sense of identity invalidation that threats to gender stereotypicality evoke, though more research is needed to determine whether this is indeed the case.”
“Finally, these studies reveal that men experience anxiety (but not reduced self-esteem) in response to masculinity threats across the domains of personality and physical appearance—but that this effect is particularly strong in the case of threats to physical masculinity. Overall, the current research highlights the central role that expectations about women and men’s physical characteristics, in additional to their psychological characteristics, play in in the dynamics and consequences of gender stereotyping.”
A new report revealed that the tonnage of e-waste created in 2022 could fill enough trucks to form a bumper-to-bumper line around the equator or to form an unbroken queue that’s almost 5,000 miles long.
The UN’s fourth Global E-waste Monitor has revealed rapidly increasing amounts of e-waste which is rising five times faster than documented recycling, with a huge chunk of trashed tech ending up in landfill. A majority of the items were toys, microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners, and e-cigarettes.
E-waste is defined as any discarded product with a plug or battery and is regarded as a health and environmental hazard. They can harbour toxic additives or hazardous substances like mercury which can damage the human brain and coordination system.
Since 2010 the number of devices binned has shot up by 82%, with predictions that it will have risen by a further 32% in 2030.
Worldwide, the annual generation of e-waste is rising by 2.6 million tonnes annually, on track to reach 82 million tonnes by 2030, a further 33% increase from the 2022 figure.
Around 62 million tons of electronics were binned in 2022
Dr Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava from ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau said: ‘From discarded televisions to dumped telephones, an enormous amount of e-waste is generated around the world.
‘The latest research shows that the global challenge posed by e-waste is only going to grow.
‘With less than half of the world implementing and enforcing approaches to manage the problem, this raises the alarm for sound regulations to increase collection and recycling.’
The researchers from the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) are pleading for urgent action on e-waste to save future generations from the worsening climate crisis.
Lead author Dr Kees Baldé added: ‘No more than 1% of demand for essential rare earth elements is met by e-waste recycling. Simply put: Business as usual can’t continue.
‘This new report represents an immediate call for greater investment in infrastructure development, more promotion of repair and reuse, capacity building, and measures to stop illegal e-waste shipments.
‘And the investment would pay for itself in spades.’
The team say challenges that create a widening gap include technological progress, higher consumption, limited repair options, shorter product life cycles, society’s growing electronification, design shortcomings, and inadequate e-waste management infrastructure.
Collection and recycling rates are highest for heavier and bulkier equipment categories, such as large devices, temperature exchange equipment, screens, and monitors.
Careless disposal of tech is not just impacting the environment, but the economy as well.
The report shows that the metals embedded in 2022 e-waste amount to a worth US $91 billion (£72 billion).
As less than a quarter (22.3%) of the year’s e-waste mass is being properly collected and recycled meaning around $62 billion (£48 billion) worth of recoverable natural resources were wasted in one year.
Ms Vanessa Gray from the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau said: ‘The Global E-waste Monitor shows that we are currently wasting US $91 billion in valuable metals due to insufficient e-waste recycling.
‘We must seize the economic and environmental benefits of proper e-waste management. Otherwise, the digital ambitions of our future generations will face significant risks.’
Professor Ruediger Kuehr from the University of Limerick added: ‘In the face of all this, concrete steps are urgently needed to address and reduce e-waste. Improved e-waste management could result in a global net positive of US $38 billion, representing a significant economic opportunity while addressing climate change and health impacts.’
WORKERS CAPITAL
Top Canadian pension funds invest $438 million in Indian highways trust, boost infra bets
BENGALURU (Reuters) - Two big Canadian pension funds invested a total of C$595 million ($438.3 million) in India's National Highways Infra Trust (NHIT) this week, dialling up their bets on the poll-bound South Asian country's booming infrastructure sector. In the trust backed by the Indian government for developing national highways, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board invested C$297 million and C$298 million, respectively, the funds said in separate statements on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The investments come as India, where general elections commence next month, has been seeing continued momentum in pre-poll government spending, benefitting construction companies across sectors such as cement, wiring and realty.
The share of road-related projects compared to overall tenders grew to 42% in the quarter ended December 2023 from 40% a year earlier, grabbing the largest slice of orders, data from India Ratings & Research showed.
Proceeds from the capital raise will be used to acquire seven road concessions across central, eastern and southern India, Ontario Teachers' said, expanding NHIT's portfolio to operations at 15 toll roads.
($1 = 1.3576 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
Tesla Germany staff to elect new council to gain control over work conditions
Reuters | March 16, 2024 | Tesla’s gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg. (Image by Michael Wolf, Penig, Wikimedia Commons.)
Tesla’s staff in Germany will elect a new works council next week, when the IG Metall union hopes to gain greater influence over pay and working conditions after it accused the the US carmaker of inadequate safety provisions.
A suspected arson attack caused production at the plant near Berlin to be halted for a week earlier this month, prompting Tesla chief executive Elon Musk to visit this week.
The elections for the new works council, to be held on March 18-20, are aimed at filling 39 seats, according to IG Metall, the top German trade union which has put forward 106 candidates in an attempt to get a majority.
That would enable it to elect the council’s chairperson and gain greater control over areas where the union has taken issue with the carmaker, which is known for its critical stance towards unions.
Among IG Metall demands is to hire new employees, better planning of working hours, at least 20 days of freely available vacation, better health protection, more security, higher pay and shorter working hours.
“Too often, savings are made on accident protection for ‘Tesla Speed’. That has to change,” IG Metall district manager Dirk Schulze said in a statement.
In order to end the understaffing of shifts, temporary workers should be hired, the union added.
Michaela Schmitz, the plant’s current works council head, told Reuters in e-mailed comments that much had been achieved over the last two years, including pay increases of up to 18%, improvements in occupational health and safety and benefits, including bike sharing and free bus rides.
“All of the aforementioned successes were achieved without the union or a collective bargaining agreement, quickly, easily and customised to Giga Berlin,” she said, adding that meant there was no need for “external influences in the future” – implying IG Metall.
In October, Tesla rejected IG Metall claims that health and safety provisions at its gigafactory near Berlin were inadequate, saying protecting workers was a top priority.
The company also last year raised salaries for the plant’s 12,500 workers, which regional IG Metall head Dirk Schulze welcomed at the time, while still calling for better working conditions at the plant.
(By Christoph Steitz; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Clelia Oziel)
Gold beans all the rage with China’s Gen Z as deflation bites
With China’s deflation at its worst in 15 years, a volatile stock market and bank interest rates too low for her liking, 18-year-old Tina Hong is placing her financial security in gold beans.
Weighing as little as one gram, the beans — and other forms of gold jewelry — are increasingly viewed as the safest investment bet for young Chinese in an era of economic uncertainty. It’s part of a larger consumer trend for all things gold — from bullion to beans and bracelets — that has gripped the mainland.
“It’s basically impossible to lose money from buying gold,” reasoned Hong, a college freshman studying computer science in Fujian province who in January began buying gold beans because of their relatively low cost of about 600 yuan ($83) per gram. She has more than two grams of the beans and will continue buying them as long as costs are lower than international gold prices, she said.
Branded as an investment entry point for young consumers, the beans, which come in glass jars, are the latest hot-selling items in Chinese jewelry stores. Generation Z consumers — buffeted by high youth unemployment and the nation’s slide into deflation — are now among the top consumers of gold accessories in the world’s second-largest economy, according to the 2023 China Jewelry Consumer Trends Report by Chow Tai Fook Jewelery Group Ltd. The attraction of gold comes as people pull back on shopping amid months of disappointing growth. China gold rush
A lack of faith in traditional investments has fueled this new China gold rush.
The nation’s stock market has seen declines after reopening from the pandemic, with one of its key benchmarks dropping to levels last seen in 2018. The country’s middle class is bearing the brunt of a property downturn — while the central bank has lowered a key interest rate four times since December 2021, eating into the return on wealth management products.
Young people are skipping “pleasurable consumption” and instead purchasing “asset-style jewelry” such as gold beans for adornment and investments, said Nikos Kavalis, managing director at the London-based consultancy Metals Focus Ltd.
However, he cautions that it makes no sense to invest in gold beans — or other gold items — because their price is often 10% to 30% higher than the commodity’s spot price. Investors would be better served by parking money in gold ETFs, he said.
Still, the fascination with gold is sweeping across social media. On Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of X, formerly Twitter, the hashtag “Why Are Young People Getting into Buying Gold” garnered 91 million hits. A lively discussion about the enduring value of gold dominates the social media site, with one popular post stating that “buying gold keeps troubles at bay.”
Three-quarters of gold consumers are now estimated to be between 25 and 35 years old and many believe investing in gold is low-risk, according to a 2021 report from the World Gold Council. That belief is reinforced as gold prices have hit multiple historic highs since December. Gold bullion passed the $2,100 per ounce threshold for the first time this month.
Sales of gold, silver and jewelery reached a six-year high in December, a 29.4% year-on-year jump, according to government data. Precious metals now represent one of the fastest-growing consumer markets in China.
Buying gold beans for gifting and investments also reached a peak during China’s lunar new year, says a spokesperson from Chinese jeweler Luk Fook Holdings International Ltd.
Even banks have joined traditional gold retailers to sell gold beans. China Merchants Bank Co., for example, introduced its line of gold bean sets in July 2023.
“Despite the recent surge in China’s gold price, consumers are still demonstrating a strong preference for gold,” said Cindy Yeung, chairwoman and managing director of Emperor Watch & Jewellery Ltd. Like other major jewelry retailers, Emperor is talking up gold on social media and e-commerce platforms. Impure beans
There are perils for consumers of gold beans and other gold objects who aren’t knowledgeable about the difference between authentic gold and fakes, experts say.
Lily Chen, a 26-year-old Shanghai office worker, discovered almost all of the gold beans she had purchased were mixed with iron, zinc and copper when she recently tried to exchange them for a gold bracelet.
“I never tried cutting corners by buying gold at ultra-cheap prices, and I made sure to buy from star-rated web stores. But this could still happen,” she said.
Nonetheless, the craze for anything gold continues to play out on social media. College students are posting diary-like entries on gold purchases, couples share how they repaired strained relationships with gold gifts — and metal resellers and collectors offer gold investing advice.
Put sanctions on Russian-origin aluminum, not on Rusal, industry group says
Reuters | March 18, 2024 | Aluminum smelter. (Reference image by UC Rusal Photo Gallery, Wikimedia Commons).
Industry group European Aluminium wants the European Union to impose sanctions on aluminum supplied from Russia but not EU-based companies owned by Rusal, which produces bauxite and alumina outside Russia some of it imported by Europe.
The group has been lobbying the EU for a ban on Russian-origin aluminum for its invasion of Ukraine. So far sanctions have not been imposed but they are still on the agenda.
Rusal sold 4.2 million metric tons of aluminum last year, most of it produced in Russia. The world’s largest aluminum producer outside China also has operations in Ireland, Sweden, Jamaica, Guinea and China. These assets mainly produce alumina or bauxite.
Bauxite is converted into alumina, a raw material to make aluminum used by companies in construction and packaging. It is also a key metal for the transport sector, where it is used for lightweighting electric vehicles to help extend battery range.
“The principle behind EU sanctions has been to try and do as much as possible to undermine the Russian war machine without creating harm to European industrial and by extension, societal interests,” Paul Voss, director general of European Aluminium.
“In a perfect world we would say we don’t need any of Rusal’s material and take a firm moral position regardless of the practical consequences. But European governments do not and cannot afford to reason that way. They have to be pragmatic.”
The EU currently has bans in place on aluminum wire, foil, tubes and pipes manufactured in Russia. But aluminum exports including primary metal, accounting for 85% of the total “remain outside the scope of the measures”, the group said last year.
EU imports of Russian primary aluminum have dropped since 2018, when the United States imposed sanctions on Rusal, but they are still significant. According to Trade Data Monitor, EU imports of Russian aluminum totalled 512,122 tons in 2023 or 8% of the total from 12% in 2022 and 19% in 2018.
Rusal said last week that sales to Europe contributed $3.4 billion to its $12.2-billion revenue in 2023.
Expectations of surpluses driven by low consumption and production increases mean the EU could more easily replace Russian aluminum from other producer countries or by more local production, said European Aluminium’s market intelligence director Djibril René.
(By Pratima Desai; Editing by David Evans)
South Africa optimistic for tax breaks to kick-start EV industry
Bloomberg News | March 18, 2024 Nissan E-Power electric vehicles on display in Cape Town, South Africa. Stock image.
South Africa expects efforts to boost its electric vehicle manufacturing to yield swift results, as manufactures start to take advantage of tax incentives from early 2026.
“We are ready now for carmakers to begin to gear up,” Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel told reporters. “A carmaker can commence immediately to put in place the production capabilities and production systems,” he said Monday on the sidelines of a Black Industrialists and Exporters Conference in the capital, Pretoria.
South Africa, in an effort to preserve a key export industry, last month announced a 150% tax deduction on investments in the local production of electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles from March 2026.
The country’s vehicle exports generated more than $21 billion in earnings last year. But car companies were worried about the lack of government support for EVs, amid shrinking demand for conventional petrol and diesel-powered engines in Europe, South Africa’s primary export market.
Patel said the long lead time was designed to give South African carmakers enough time to prepare production facilities and win support from their parent companies.
“As they incur that expense off the back of our incentive, they know they will be reimbursed,” he said.
The tax break is key for South Africa, which despite its natural advantages, has done little to develop an EV industry in the country.
South Africa has abundant supplies of raw materials vital for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, including increasing supplies of nickel and the world’s largest reserves of manganese. it also holds the world’s largest platinum reserves, a metal used in fuel-cell engines that run on hydrogen.
(By Mpho Hlakudi)
Li-Cycle raises cost estimate for Rochester Hub project again
Reuters | March 18, 2024 Battery recycling plant in Rochester, New York. (Image courtesy of Li-Cycle.)
Li-Cycle on Monday raised the cost estimate for the construction of its Rochester Hub again to $960 million, even as the battery recycling company struggles with liquidity issues.
The increase in cost was primarily due to the refinement of the methodology used for estimating the project budget, it said.
In October, Li-Cyle paused the construction of its flagship battery recycling facility in Rochester, New York, and later said it was evaluating financing and strategic alternatives.
It had also raised the cost of the project to between $850 million and $1 billion in November, from $560 million earlier.
Li-Cyle said on Monday it continues to complete its comprehensive review work, including re-engaging and re-bidding construction subcontracts.
Last week, the company secured an additional $75 million investment through a convertible note from Swiss miner and commodities trader Glencore, to help with the Hub’s financing.
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