Posted on 02/09/2022 8:34:42 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Beijing (AFP) – The Covid lockdown this week of a relatively unknown Chinese city sent global prices of aluminium rocketing to a 14-year high.
Located near the border with Vietnam, Baise is nicknamed the "aluminium capital of southern China".
Home to around 3.5 million people, Baise is a hub for aluminium mining and production.
It produces about 2.2 million tonnes of the commodity per year -- more than 80 percent of the output in the resource-rich Guangxi region.
Guangxi is China's main alumina-exporting region, shipping out around 500,000 tonnes of the aluminium component per month.
China is the world's biggest producer of aluminium, a crucial component in major industries including automobiles, construction and consumer goods.
Baise was locked down Monday, leaving most of its residents under home confinement and others unable to leave rural counties and townships under the city's jurisdiction.
Baise's local industry association said Tuesday that while aluminium production was largely at normal levels, the transportation of ingots and raw materials was seriously impacted by travel restrictions during the lockdown.
That in turn sparked fears about supply that cascaded through China and then around the world.
A major industrial park in Baise containing several factories has been sealed, affecting the movement of workers, raw materials and aluminium ingots.
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
Foiled again...
I don’t believe the CHICOMS give a rat’s behind about whether their surfs catch covid. I have come to believe these are strategic shutdowns to jack prices up and/or cut supply for various strategic reasons.
This one is easy. It's because the Marxists and the globalists teamed up to stop making stuff in the US. Turns out that interests were jointly aligned in pursuing profit motives, advancing communism, and globalism and screwing over the peasants.
PS only a limey toff says aluminium
Yes! I remember in the 80’s and 90’s China dumping cheap, government subsidized aluminum ingots of the US market messing up the US aluminum market pretty bad.
It’s a communist plot to deprive us tinfoil for our beanies. Soon we’ll all be believing in lizard people, chemtrails and magnetic seamonkeys in vaccines.
Which is already subsidized by cheap electricity from TVA and the Bonneville Power Administration [both gubmint operations]
Foiled again...
I see what you did there.
Foiled
Aluminum
ha ha
They have been conducting low-grade economic war against us for a long time. First by dumping products into streams of commerce. Then by subsidy. And now, by capricious acts in the name of “zero covid policy”. Not sure if it is still in effect but they put a 3 week quarantine on returning ship crews, and a 7 day quarantine on returning ships. So while we have bottlenecks at the ports, they are essentially grinding new shipments to a long delay - which may alleviate the port congestion but will create a different kind of supply chain problem this spring and summer.
In essence, they spent decades luring in customers with below free market pricing, and now they have a dependent customer base they are curtailing supply to create inflation and higher revenues.
Woooo-Hoooo..... time to sell my bags of cans.
Bkmk
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