In The News

Guess What Else Climate Change Hurts? Globalization

Eric Roston June 15, 2016
Multinational corporations rely on supply chains, and climate change could disrupt the efficiency. Weather-related disasters from flooding, droughts and wildfires cost billions of dollars in damage. “Manufacturing these days involves facilities in multiple countries, each of which has a sequential role in taking raw materials a step closer to being finished products,” reports Eric Roston for...

The Rise of Manufacturing Marks the Fall of Globalization

Rebecca Keller June 10, 2016
The many parts of complex machinery are sourced for now from multiple countries. “Over the past century, finished products made in a single country have become increasingly hard to find as globalization – weighted a term as it is – has stretched supply chains to the ends of the Earth,” writes Rebecca Keller for Stratfor. She points out that automation, robotics and computerization will gradually...

China's Steel Industry Is Dominating the Global Market

Peter Pham May 2, 2016
China is the world’s biggest steelmaker, explains Peter Pham for Forbes. The country manufactures nearly half the world’s steel, essential for modern economies and infrastructure. Other Asian nations make 19 percent of the world’s steel; the EU, 10 percent; and NAFTA, 7 percent. As Chinese leaders try to transform the economy toward more services and reduce manufacturing, investment in Chinese...

Going Global? Study Tata Steel First

Rajrishi Singhal April 8, 2016
Tata Steel is among a number of Indian firms selling foreign assets to repay debt or discontinue less profitable ventures, and the trends may signal India’s troubles with globalization, suggests Rajrishi Singhal. “Economic reforms and competitive pressures forced many Indian companies to expand operations overseas through acquisitions with either (or a combination) of three objectives in mind –...

Globalization’s Toll: Tata Steel’s Expansion Dream

Dilip Hiro April 7, 2016
Executives in the mining and steel industries miscalculated by expecting rapid growth to continue in China. China's leaders instead shifted the direction of their economy to rely less on manufacturing and more on services. Slowed growth led to a downturn in demand for commodities like iron ore and coal along with overcapacity in the steel industry. That increased China's exports,...

Faulty Mission?

Nayan Chanda January 12, 2016
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched “Make in India” to create jobs and attract foreign investment, but the campaign “remains mired in political battles and cultural battles,” explains Nayan Chanda, founding editor of YaleGlobal Online who also consults for the publication. “India’s hope to take up the slack from China’s … increasingly expensive labour force may have come too late.” The...

When a 127-Year-Old US Industry Collapses Under China's Weight

Joe Deaux November 4, 2015
Companies and consumers alike seek supplies with lowest prices. That trend is prompting Alcoa to cut back on making and refining aluminum. “For more than a decade, output has been moving to where it’s cheaper to produce: Russia, the Middle East and China,” reports Joe Dean for Bloomberg News, adding that low labor, energy and currency costs give overseas plants an advantage. China accounts for...