Going into 2016, the overall theme will still be there, with demand still weak as China steers away from high energy-intensive industrial growth and the replacement (of coal) by other energy sources continues.

Helen Lau

Categorized in : Energy

But then a couple of days later, you can see a big movement in the prices - so that was mainly because of this possible weaponizing of rare earths, if China indeed weaponizes rare earths, the U.S. will not have enough supply because it needs some lead time to build their own processing capacity, which currently is zero.

Even though at the current (aluminum) price you may say smelters are not making money, as long as they break even they will continue to produce, those newly commissioned smelters have to start operating to pay back their loans. They have to generate enough cash flow to do that.

China has taken advantage of low gold prices and an equity market... by Helen Lau

China has taken advantage of low gold prices and an equity market rout to stock up on gold assets.

But the Chinese coal price has not gone up at all, meaning that even though imports of coal increased a little, overall demand remains very, very weak.

It's not the end, we still have plan B; either to occupy other pl... by Helen Lau

It's not the end, we still have plan B; either to occupy other places or to step up our actions.