Australia has escalated a two-year campaign to force Chinese investors out of Northern Minerals Ltd., barring three China-linked shareholders that defied divestment orders from voting or exercising other rights in the heavy rare-earths developer — a signal that Canberra now intends to police foreign ownership on an ongoing basis, not just at the point of a transaction.
Foxconn Technology Group is stepping up energy-saving measures, green-power procurement, and supply chain decarbonization, with its factories in Taiwan targeting RE50 by 2030. The move comes as global brands such as Apple and Google increase pressure on suppliers to use renewable energy and cut emissions.
Huawei Technologies is becoming an increasingly important supplier to the global energy transition, expanding beyond telecommunications into solar inverters, battery storage, and electric vehicle charging.
China's largest rare-earth suppliers have cut their third-quarter 2026 concentrate transfer price for the first time in eight quarters, offering limited relief to magnet makers after a prolonged cost surge while leaving the broader supply-demand imbalance largely intact.
Taiwan's completion of its national E10 gasoline standard gives the island a firmer basis for bioethanol-blended fuels, with implications beyond its borders as governments seek cleaner transport options, greater energy security, and lower emissions. However, industry support alone may not be enough without public trust and clearer policy planning.
China is increasingly viewing 2026 as the launch year for sodium-ion batteries, as the technology's cost advantages in the energy storage market become more visible. The latest analysis from Bernstein and Morgan Stanley says sodium batteries are no longer just a low-cost alternative to lithium batteries, but are emerging as a complementary technology alongside them.
China's sodium-ion battery sector is drawing intense attention as surging lithium carbonate prices lift lithium battery production costs. But Chinese media say the market is already showing a split between "big-company heat and small-company chill," and that large-scale production could expose new material shortages.
South Korea's hydrogen rail commercialization is entering the final stretch, with Hyundai Rotem, a unit of Hyundai Motor Group, building hydrogen trains equipped with Hyundai Motor's in-house fuel cell system. The first commercial service is expected as early as 2029, but a 2024 shutdown of hydrogen trains in Foshan, China has raised questions about economic viability.
A US emergency order to stabilize electricity supplies during an extreme heat wave has underscored a deepening structural imbalance in the country's power system. As aging grid infrastructure struggles to keep pace with rapidly rising AI-driven electricity demand, Taiwan's power equipment manufacturers are seeing stronger order momentum and extending backlog visibility in North America.
Taiwan plans to launch an emissions trading system (ETS) in 2028 as the next phase of its carbon pricing framework — a cap-and-trade market where companies buy and sell permits to emit greenhouse gases. However, environmental researchers and academics caution that the experiences of Japan, South Korea, and the European Union (EU) show that emissions trading markets take years to mature and operate effectively. With Taiwan's own carbon fee only recently taking effect, they argue the government should prioritize policy continuity and give businesses time to internalize carbon costs and implement decarbonization strategies before introducing a cap-and-trade regime.
Walmart and Constellation Energy announced on June 23 that the retailer signed its first nuclear power purchase agreement, securing about 176 MW of zero-emission electricity from the Dresden Clean Energy Center in Illinois. The deal comprises two 15-year contracts that include 30 MW of new generation capacity and are scheduled to begin in 2029 and 2030.
Generative AI is driving a sharp rise in electricity demand from data centers and AI computing infrastructure, prompting China to release its 15th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of a New Energy System (2026–2030). The plan incorporates AI power demand into China's national energy strategy for the first time, calling for closer coordination between electricity supply and computing capacity to support AI, advanced manufacturing, and other strategic industries.
