In this week’s Economist is an article of concern to any company buying materials from China. This is the link but, if you are not an Economist subscriber, let me try to summarise it.
Swedish battery makers found their supplies of graphite from China have not been getting export licences. If you are a battery maker, that is very bad.
At first, it was assumed to be related to Sweden’s award to a publisher, free-speech advocate, and Swedish citizen, Gui Minhai, who was kidnapped in Taiwan by Chinese agents, and then imprisoned in China.
Then a different suspicion emerged.
China has large investments in battery manufacture in Poland and Hungary. These have managed to increase their production at the expense of Sweden. Could it be that China’s block on export licences to Sweden is intended to stop Swedish plants from competing with its own investments? Blocking supplies to Sweden’s Northvolt, one of Europe’s most competitive battery manufacturers, could remove it from the market and obliterate a potential competitor.
The reason to worry is that, no matter how good your relationships are with Chinese suppliers, the government in China could weaponise export licences if your activities represent a commercial threat to other Chinese interests. It has nothing to do with your suppliers’ goodwill, behaviour or intentions. They don’t control the export licences
Is that something to escalate within your organisation?