Editor Blogs

May 2019

China Threatens to Restrict Exports of Rare Earth Minerals

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

China’s about to seriously escalate the Sino-American trade war. Maybe. Possibly. After President Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent, China responded by threatening to put restrictions on “rare earth” materials. At first glance, this seems like a catastrophe – we need rare earth

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05/30/2019

A TuSimple autonomous truck.

U.S. Postal Service to Experiment with Autonomous Trucks

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

We’ve heard a lot about autonomous taxis, buses, drones, and planes, but commercial trucking hasn’t received nearly as much love – even with an estimated driver shortage of 175,000 by 2024. That could change with the USPS awarding a contract to TuSimple for self-driving trucks. The United States Postal Service

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05/24/2019

Huawei Fracas Puts the Hurt on Semiconductor Stocks

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

Sino-American Trade War, meet Newton’s Third Law. There was always going to be blowback from America’s commercial tussle with China – you can’t muck with a country’s largest private enterprise (Huawei) without repercussions. And far be it for me to sympathize with a company that paid employees to steal

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05/20/2019

Huawei chairman Liang Hua

Huawei Willing to Sign "No-Spy" Agreements

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

I’ll say this much for Huawei – they kinda, sorta went against the wishes of the People’s Republic. Shortly after Germany claimed that China refused to sign a “no-spy” agreement for telecom technology, Huawei stepped to the plate and offered assurances of its own. According to Reuters, Germany

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05/14/2019

Fuel Cells Could Last 10x Longer with New Development

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

Fuel cells could become financially viable within a decade. University of Waterloo researchers have developed a new fuel cell technology that lasts 10x longer than current options. We’ve all been seduced by the promise of fuel cells – clean, renewable energy, with none of the intrinsic limitations of trad

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05/08/2019

France and Germany Attempt to Form Battery Cell Consortium

Jason Lomberg, North American Editor, PSD

Europe is fighting back against China’s dominance in the battery space by attempting to form a cross-border battery cell consortium. The coalition would include French carmaker PSA, German subsidiary Opel, and French battery maker Saft. And just in time -- the Benchmark Mineral Intelligence megafactory tracker r

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Date:

05/01/2019