Industry headlines this week focused on China's stock market distress, along with reports of construction contraction in the UK and environmental concerns over deep sea mining.
China's falling stock market hurts GM, Ford [USA Today]
"Earlier this week, GM said sales of 246,066 vehicles from its joint ventures in China increased a negligible 0.4% in June from a year earlier, despite reducing prices by up to 20% on about 40 models." Read more
The Biggest Opportunity In Agriculture May Be In Africa, and China Is Seizing It [Forbes]
"The Chinese investments are not bearing fruit just yet. There may be plenty of land in Africa, but much of the rural landscape isn’t connected to ports by adequate infrastructure. " Read more
Mining companies sucked into Chinese stock market's vortex [FT.com]
"The sector’s fall underscores how tightly its fortunes are bound up with events in China, which became by far the largest consumer of mined commodities in the first decade of this century amid rapid industrialisation, and supposedly set in train a natural resources supercycle." Read more
Environmental groups call for regulation as world dives into deep sea mining [The Washingotn Post]
"Now that firms and international groups are preparing to shift their very costly exploratory projects into lucrative operations, environmental groups are pushing to get the right international regulations in place to protect deep sea ecosystems." Read more
UK construction industry contracts sharply in May [FT.com]
"The slowdown in building activity follows disappointing data for UK manufacturing, which fell 0.6 per cent in May. Industrial production posted an unexpected increase, however, thanks to strong activity in the extractive sector." Read more
