China
Shopping tour ends + CP can do capitalism
Dear reader,
The fear of Beijing's shopping spree was great. Given the Covid pandemic, people from Lisbon to Brussels and Berlin to Nicosia feared that China could now go on a bargain hunt for ailing companies from the key industries of the European Union. An electricity supplier here, a producer of important industrial metals there, and perhaps an airport to boot. But this does not prove to be true.
As a study by the Berlin research institute Merics and the Rhodium Group shows, Chinese direct investments in Europe declined last year. Finn Mayer-Kuckuk explains the reasons behind the decline in investment. In addition to waning interest from the People's Republic, defensive mechanisms of the EU also play a decisive role in the trend.
On the other hand, the number of used EV batteries is increasing instead of decreasing. As the market in China is booming, more and more of the worn-out lithium-ion batteries are also accumulating – but where to put them? The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is now taking manufacturers to task even more, as Frank Sieren reports. They should pay more attention to recycling.
