Search Results (3)

Against the backdrop of great power strategic games, countries around the world have been continuously intensifying their control over the trade of critical metals, including tungsten, in order to seize the commanding heights of scientific, technological, and economic development, which has led to increasingly fierce competition in the global tungsten industry chain and supply chain. Although China is endowed with abundant tungsten ore reserves, its tungsten industry chain remains dominated by mid-to-low-end products, with low added value and limited pricing power in the international market. Therefore, it is of great significance to clarify the export competitiveness level of China in each link of the tungsten industry chain and to identify the influencing factors for improving the overall competitiveness of the industrial chain, which will enhance China’s international status and assist in formulating sustainable tungsten resource management strategies. Based on the industrial chain perspective and the trade data of typical products at various stages of the tungsten industry chain from 2008 to 2022, this study first selects the World Market Share Index, Trade Competitive Advantage Index, and Revealed Comparative Advantage Index to quantitatively depict the export competitiveness of the overall, upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors of China’s tungsten industry chain, and a horizontal comparison is conducted with major global tungsten resource trading countries. Secondly, the entropy weight method is adopted to further comprehensively evaluate the competitiveness level of various countries. Finally, the potential influencing factors of the overall export competitiveness of the tungsten industry chain are explored in accordance with Porter’s Diamond Model, and a fixed-effect model is used to perform regression analysis on the panel data. The research findings show that China has strong export competitiveness in the midstream and downstream sectors of the tungsten industry chain, while its export competitiveness in the upstream tungsten ore sector is relatively weak. The level of education, human capital, educational expenditure, gross national product, and trade openness all have a significant positive impact on the export competitiveness of tungsten resources. Greater efforts should be made in China to cultivate high-end talents in the tungsten industry. Moreover, innovation in green technologies and products should be encouraged, and international cooperation should be deepened, to improve the efficiency of the entire industrial chain so that stable and green long-term competitiveness in the tungsten industry can be achieved. Full article

Carbon emissions from the Yangtze River Economic Belt are an important element of China’s carbon emission endeavor, and a study of its emission reduction pathway can provide a reference for the country’s overall management of carbon emission reduction. From the perspective of energy consumption, this paper uses the carbon emission factor method to estimate the carbon emissions of the transportation industry in the Yangtze River Economic Belt during 2006–2020, based on the extended STIRPAT model, considering the influence of seven factors, i.e., population size, urbanization rate, GDP per capita, transportation added value, energy structure, energy intensity, and transportation intensity, on carbon emissions. Based on these factors, a scenario analysis, combined with a forecasting model, is used to predict the peak carbon performance of the transportation industry under different development scenarios. The results show that the overall carbon emissions of transportation in the YEB from 2006 to 2020 show a fluctuating upward trend, and the downstream carbon emissions are significantly higher than those in other regions. The main factors influencing carbon emissions from transportation in different upstream, midstream, and downstream regions vary, with both population and economic factors contributing to carbon emissions, while technical factors affect them differently. There are significant differences in the peak carbon performance of transportation under different development scenarios, and the government should take effective measures to work towards achieving the goals of the low-carbon or enhanced low-carbon scenarios. Full article

Most policies and incentives that aim to enable smallholder farmers towards the intensification of their agri-food production systems focus on supply-side strategies, such as training, technical assistance or credit services. Far less attention is usually given to demand-side drivers, such as the role of midstream value chain actors supporting smallholder’s investments in primary production. This explorative paper provides new insights on the value addition in the production vs. the midstream segments of agri-food value chains. It focusses attention on the influence of value chain integration on smallholders’ production and investment opportunities, and the implications for the structure of primary production. We use data from several value chains in sub-Saharan Africa to illustrate how farmers link to commercial midstream actors are able to enhance resource productivity, efficiency and profitability. In addition, we show that a larger role of the midstream in value added creation is associated with a more equal farm size distribution. Full article