In March, Premier Li Keqiang named semiconductors as the top priority of the 10 industries China wants to foster in its “Made in China 2025” initiative. But China’s ambitions were already clear in 2014 when it launched the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund — better known as the Big Fund — in 2014 with 138 billion yuan ($21.9 billion) in seed capital, which it hoped would turbocharge investment from local governments and the private sector. Source Asian Review
The US State Department on Oct. 20 widened the scope of sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline and warned companies involved in the final installation that they face sanctions if they do not wind down activities within 30 days. Source Spglobal
Whether or not S&P Global Ratings downgrades Italian debt this week is a coin toss, according to Deutsche Bank AG.
“We think it’s a 50-50 call as both an unchanged outlook as well as a downgrade could be justified,” wrote Ioannis Sokos, a strategist at Deutsche, citing S&P’s outlook criteria from April. Source Bloomberg
Gazprom supplied 2.3 bln cubic meters of natural gas to China over the Power of Siberia gas pipeline in January – August 2020 after the deliveries started in December 2019. Daily gas deliveries from Russia to China over the Power of Siberia gas pipeline were above contractual commitments for the first time on Monday, Gazprom said. Source Tass
