Australia and China are in a de facto trade war. This has been simmering for some time but came to the fore when Australia suggested an international investigation into the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Shortly afterwards China placed an 80% tariff on Australian barley imports on the basis the industry was receiving government subsidies through water irrigation grants in the Murray-Darling river system. This Chinese claim is rather spurious given the bulk of the barley is grown on the opposite side of the continent in Western Australia. Subsequently there was banning of beef imports from six major Australian abattoirs, then timber imports from Tasmania and South Australia. Copper ore was added along with a 212% tariff on Australian wine imports after China alleged dumping. Coal imports have also been blocked. More recently crayfish (lobster) imports were blocked.
The one major product not blocked is iron ore. Australia provides more than 60% of China’s total iron ore. There are two major world sources of iron ore, Australia and Brazil. The quality of the Australian ore is superior to any other source and at the moment iron ore production in Brazil is low after a major environmental incident. The other major component for the manufacturing of iron is coal. Australian thermal coal is superior to other sources for the smelting of iron ore. As China has blocked Australian coal, Chinese steel producers are having to purchase more expensive and lesser quality coal (more inefficient and more polluting) from alternate sources such as Russia, Mongolia, Indonesia, South Africa and domestic mines.
The China-USA trade war and the pandemic have dramatically reduced world demand for Chinese exports. Moreover the shrinking of the global economy during the pandemic has resulted in the Chinese ‘Belts and Roads’ strategy stalling.
In an effort to increase demand the Chinese government and turned to its domestic economy investing in major infrastructure projects. A major component of this is steel. The demand for iron ore has driven up the price, which is currently at a high around A$140/tonne.
Chinese steel producers are hurting. The price of iron ore is high and the available coal is inferior and expensive.
Meanwhile, although the Australian coal, timber, barley, wine and crayfish industries are hurting, the Federal government is not. The higher price of iron ore is more than offsetting losses from the above industries.
China would need to block imports of Australian iron ore if it wanted to achieve a major adverse impact on Australian government revenue. However they can’t currently do that without an alternative supplier.
Returning to coal. China’s purchase of coal from alternative sources has driven up the price (market forces) whilst Australian miners have cut back on production. Because the price of coal has risen there is a shortage in China just as winter starts to bite. Chinese industries are being ordered to reduce their demand for electricity and domestic heating is going to cause some suffering in the cities. I doubt this will cause the Chinese government to collapse. But it isn’t going to make them popular this winter.
One benefit of this trade war has been to make Australian producers aware of how dependent they had become on the Chinese market. They had most of their eggs in one basket. The barley industry has already found alternative markets and whilst the price they receive is lower, they have spread their risk. No doubt other industries will follow.
To more local matters
The fan on the graphics card heat sink in the very old desktop computer has become very noisy. Have you noticed this appears to be the season for very noisy fans?. This computer was old before we left for the UK in 2011 and was in storage for six years so perhaps it’s unsurprising the fan has decided to play up. The conventional approach would probably be to replace the graphic card but the pc is so old cards of this vintage are almost a collectors item.
My solution has been to remove the card from the computer and then separate the fan from the heat sink to give me access to the reverse of the fan where the tiny bearing is located.
Using a toothpick I placed a very small amount of bearing grease from the tub of grease I bought to grease the wheel bearings on the 4x4 and trailer onto the fan bearing and then covered it with a piece of duct tape to keep out the dust. The fan was then super glued back onto the heat sink and reinstalled in the computer. It seems to have worked! If you attempt something similar don’t use WD40 or CRC as they are cleaning agents rather than lubricants.
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