China continues to lead global growth in the next generation of telecommunications technology with the expansion of the country’s 5G network, according to the Minister of Industry and Information Technology Xiao Yaqing.
“China has built more than one million 5G base stations, which is over 70% of the world market. The number of 5G users has exceeded 400 million, which is the largest user group in the world,” the official said, as quoted by Xinhua news agency.
According to the ministry’s forecast, the number of 5G subscribers in the country will exceed 560 million by 2023, or nearly 40% of the total number of mobile users in the country.
Earlier, the ministry also said that China ranks first in the number of patents related to 5G communication technologies.
China’s leading mobile operators began providing fifth-generation communication services to their customers in October 2019. Throughout 2020, some 580,000 5G base stations were installed in the country, with the network covering all major cities. Beijing plans to install over 600,000 new stations by the end of the year.
While many countries around the globe are only starting to embrace 5G technology, Chinese tech giant Huawei recently announced plans to roll out its successor 6G network, which it aims to introduce to the market by 2030.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) projects rising fuel consumption next year, with global oil demand expected to grow by 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd).
Total oil demand in 2022 will reach 100.8 million bpd, which is higher than pre-pandemic levels, OPEC said in its monthly September report.
“The recovery in demand for all types of fuel is expected to be stronger and supported by stable economic growth in all regions,” OPEC stated.
The forecast figure for next year’s oil demand is 0.9 million bpd higher than the estimate posted by the organization in August.
The report says the growth in global demand for oil for the remainder of 2021 will amount to six million bpd. The forecast for oil demand in the second half of the year was reduced due to the renewed spread of coronavirus infection, and in particular the Delta variant.
OPEC noted, however, that demand for the commodity in the third quarter of this year was stable amid growing population mobility, especially in the member-states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
In general, OPEC expects oil demand in 2021 to recover to the level of 96.7 million bpd. It also noted that it expects a growth in supply on the oil market for the remainder of the year, amounting to some 900,000 barrels per day, boosting the supply total up to 63.8 million barrels per day. This will happen amid increased production in Canada, Russia, China, USA, Brazil, and Norway.
While many bitcoin opponents criticize the world’s top cryptocurrency for using ‘more electricity than many countries,’ Max and Stacy look back to what Henry Ford and others said about an energy-backed currency.
They also discuss the problem with using gold when governments control so much of it.
The price of natural gas on the European market has been skyrocketing, hitting yet another record in Tuesday trading, according to the ICE exchange.
The price of the October futures on the TTF hub in the Netherlands on September 14 surpassed $800 per 1,000 cubic meters, or 65.50 euro per megawatt-hour in household terms.
Gaining over $70 per 1,000 cubic meters in just one day, the price of gas in Europe is now at its highest in at least the last decade.
Experts interviewed by TASS warned that although the current surge in the commodity price in Europe is abnormal and volatile, new records are more than possible given the low storage volumes and the fast-approaching winter. Gas prices may even reach $1000 per thousand cubic meters, but the situation will depend on a number of factors, including the rising gas price on the market in Asia and the weather, experts note.
Russia could save the day for the European energy market once it launches gas deliveries via the newly completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Dmitry Marinchenko, group director for natural resources and commodities at Fitch rating agency told TASS.
“At the moment, the launch of Nord Stream 2 can increase the supply of gas,” he said. And, apparently, the supply increase is needed, as the daily capacity of gas supplies through the two strings of Nord Stream 2 is comparable to the entire volume of liquefied gas that is now supplied to Europe, according to Alexey Grivach, deputy head of Russia’s Energy Security Fund.
Earlier this month, Gazprom said that the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was fully completed. It is planned to be commissioned by the end of 2021, right after all the required certification is obtained.
The Chinese government is planning to break up Ant Group’s Alipay and create a separate app for the fintech giant’s loans business, according to media reports.
Regulators previously ordered Ant Group to split the business of AliPay from lending businesses Huabei and Jiebei. Boom Bust’s Christy Ai and Ben Swann weigh in on the latest measures from the world’s second-largest economy.
