Day: May 6, 2025

China is a top aluminium producer and consumer but it lacks the high-quality bauxite needed to make it. The country instead relies on imported aluminium ore from Guinea and Australia – but that could soon change. Advertisement A plant in the central province of Shanxi is being upgraded with a French technology that will enable it to produce aluminium from China’s low-grade ore that was previously unusable. The Bayer process, invented by Austrian chemist Karl Josef Bayer in 1888, is widely used to refine bauxite into smelting-grade alumina, or aluminium…

This live blog has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Get faster notifications on the latest updates by downloading our app. At 9am on Wednesday, the People’s Bank of China, the National Financial Regulatory Administration and the China Securities Regulatory Commission will hold a joint press conference to present their plan for stabilising markets and expectations. The conference comes as hopes run high for more support to be extended to exporters in doubt over their futures as US…

Amid the labyrinth of stalls at Yiwu’s small-commodities market – the world’s largest wholesale hub, located in eastern China – Canadian retailer Luke Therrien weaves through aisles of Christmas trinkets, keychains and gadgets, scanning for suppliers he once sourced through American middlemen. Advertisement Those intermediaries used to curate goods from hundreds of Chinese factories and repackage them for North American retailers like Therrien, the CEO of his company. But now, amid deepening trade tensions, stock shortages and tariff headaches across the border in the US, Therrien has come straight to…

Asia’s largest economies made a decision that could signal a shift away from the US dollar on Sunday, as they approved a new rapid financing mechanism that will for the first time use regional currencies including the Chinese yuan. Advertisement The new scheme has been rapidly approved as countries across East and Southeast Asia look to shield themselves from the financial volatility unleashed by US President Donald Trump’s global tariff war, which has triggered turbulence in the US Treasuries market and an Asian currency rally in recent days. It may…

Leading lights of snooker have lined up to hail the impact of Zhao Xintong’s World Championship triumph, with the governing body’s chief suggesting it would fuel a boom for the sport. Advertisement A first for China and indeed Asia, Zhao’s success on Monday may have been applauded loudest in Shenzhen, where he was raised, and in Sheffield, the scene of the victory and his adoptive home. But the cueist nicknamed “The Cyclone” blew away his opponents with such force that it sent ripples right across the snooker map. Excitement, admiration…

Beijing has warned Washington not to use dialogue as a tactic for coercion as senior US and Chinese officials prepare to hold critical negotiations this weekend in Switzerland, in the first face-to-face discussions since the start of the latest trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Advertisement US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with China’s top economic official, Vice-Premier He Lifeng later this week in Switzerland. The Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday morning that He would visit Switzerland from May 9…