Crypto News: Supply Lines: Turning up the heat

The European Union's trade tsar, Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, traveled to China last month with a long list of irritants and a clear message: The $900 billion relationship was "at a crossroads."

Either Beijing takes steps to open up its economy or they would start moving apart — the most explicit warning anyone's heard him utter publicly to the world's No. 2 economy in his three years with the trade portfolio.

The commission's announcement days earlier on a new probe into electric vehicles produced in China, including Tesla, was a warning shot to show Chinese authorities that Europe was ready to show its teeth after years of unmet promises, regardless of the fear of retaliation.

After an initial backlash, China toned down its response and offered to cooperate on issues such as export controls or financial services. China can't flex its muscle too much or risk pushing the EU closer to the US's more assertive stance, some in Brussels said, even more when Trump 2.0 is a real possibility feared in Europe too.

Moreover, inside the commission, the EU's executive arm, senior officials are calling for putting more pressure on Beijing.

Other Industries

The EU commissioner for industry, Thierry Breton, proposed to investigate China's support to manufacturers of wind turbines, as the Asian economy offers project developers 15%-55% lower prices than European wind turbines with deferred payments of up to three years, he wrote on LinkedIn this month.

The Frenchman's proposal however is not getting traction among EU officials and diplomats, and the industry rather demands shorter periods to obtain permits for new projects — an issue that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has pledged to consider in a new Wind Power package.

The commission will also come forward on Tuesday with a proposal identifying critical technologies, potentially subject to the outbound investment screening tool that the 27-nation bloc is preparing.

The instrument, part of the EU's economic security strategy, would focus on a small number of sensitive technologies "where investment can lead to the development of military capabilities that pose risks to national security," the commission had already said.

The EU and the US, which came forward with its own tool in August, have China in the crosshairs. To many observers, tensions among the geopolitical and economic heavyweights are just getting warmed up.

Related Reading:

—Jorge Valero in Brussels

Export Strength | Vietnam's economy accelerated for a second straight quarter on the back of stronger performances by its key growth drivers — manufacturing and exports. Gross domestic product increased 5.33% from a year ago in the three months ending September, compared with a 5% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey and a revised 4.05% expansion in the previous quarter. Trade data released by the General Statistics Office also on Friday showed exports returned to growth in September, snapping six months of declines. Meanwhile, a slump in South Korean exports eased further in September in a positive sign for an economy that depends heavily on trade.

The Commerce Department has set aside $500 million in government grants for smaller companies in the semiconductor supply chain, as the US seeks to beef up domestic production of critical electronic components and reduce reliance on Asian production lines.
Republican lawmakers accused a Chinese auto-parts maker of a "blatant" effort to evade US tariffs in the latest sign of rising pressure in Washington to limit China's growing presence in the car business.
China has proposed relaxing its strict rules on data flows abroad, in its latest move to allay foreign business concerns and revive faltering growth in the world's second-largest economy.
Russia currently has 150,000 excess shipping containers that rail depots are struggling to manage, reflecting a surge in Chinese goods flowing into the country but much less moving out.
America's farm commodity exports are at risk again because of a diminished Mississippi River. Months of dry weather and the hottest summer ever shrunk the vital channel for barges of grain and soybeans from the Midwestern crop belt to Gulf Coast ports.
Elite fashion houses like Christian Dior have quietly expanded manufacturing into developing nations such as India. But credit sharing for these supply chains is patchy, even as laws tighten around transparency.
Workers at the Richards Bay Coal Terminal in South Africa rejected its latest wage offer and will continue to strike, according to the main labor union at the port.

Aerospace suppliers remain challenged as the recovery in aircraft manufacturing is slow and choppy amid persistent manufacturing errors and supply-chain instability, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
FedEx's updated 2024 profit guidance of $17-$18.50 may still be conservative, given the courier company's strong execution, Bloomberg Intelligence says as the company's Ground unit reduced the cost per package by more than 2% despite inflation.
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