China

Monday, 15th February 2010 21:21 - by Boredmum

February 14th, as we all know, is Valentine’s Day. Oh no, that’s right, you guys aren’t interested in a Blog about Valentine’s Day. Well, February 14th this year was also Chinese New Year, so I thought I’d talk about China. The Chinese are in a very strong position at the moment, being cash-rich. Take one of the shares that I hold - European Nickel PLC (TIDM code: ENK). They are waiting for news that funding has been confirmed (we do hope that confirmation will come), that funding coming from the Chinese, and it goes without saying that China has the upper hand in many areas connected to the stockmarket just now. The Chinese economy continues to expand and show strong growth in manufacturing. This will certainly be important for companies producing materials such as coal, like Churchill Mining (TIDM code: CHL). There was an assumption that Chinese growth would start to slow down and the Government recently put a stop on bank lending in order to curb it; with the fear the growth will be too fast. Growth has continued throughout January anyhow. I mentioned before about the need for materials such as coal. China is actually the world’s biggest consumer of coal for power and heat generation, the building industry, chemical industry, and metallurgical industry. So, China may start to look out for coal companies to buy-out, or to fund in joint ventures as their demand may very well outstrip their own supplies. It may be that the Chinese have the upper hand in a company you are invested in. I wouldn’t be surprised, as they seem to feature strongly at the moment. 2010 is the year of the Tiger. People born in the Year of the Tiger are straightforward and uninhibited in nature. They will never give up, no matter how frustrated they may become. However, they are also full of suspicion and will sometimes take hasty action. Interesting...I wonder how many Tigers are reading this?