China’s Next Five Years: A perspective on minor metals and supply chains–June 18, 2015
Twenty five metal traders, end-users, lawyers and gathered to hear some of the leading China experts discuss how China’s developing economy and policy’s under President Xi Jinping will affect the trade in commodities, especially minor metal resources.
William Hess (PRC-Macro), Patrick Chovanec (Silvercrest Asset Management) and David Abraham (TREM) explained the impact of China’s evolving policies on the environment, trade and the development of strategic industries like aviation, defense and green tech.
DISCUSSANTS
David S. Abraham is Senior Fellow at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and runs TREM Center. His book on the growing importance of rare metals to meet exploding green and high tech needs will be published by Yale University Press in September. Previously, he worked at RBS Sempra Commodities and Lehman Brothers analyzing risk. He also oversaw natural resource programs and foreign aid programs at the White House Office of Management and Budget.
David was also a research fellow focusing on rare metals at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Council on Foreign Relations and Tokyo University. At the time, he served as a reviewer for the Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Strategy. His writing has been published in outlets including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal.
Patrick Chovanec is Managing Director and Chief Strategist at Silvercrest Asset Management. He also teaches part-time as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Before Silvercrest he was an Associate Professor of Practice at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management in Beijing, where he also served as Chairman of the Public Policy Development Committee for the American Chamber of Commerce in China. Previously he worked for a series of private equity funds focused on emerging markets. He was director of Institutional Investor’s Asia Pacific Institute (Hong Kong) and its Global Fixed Income Institute (London). He also worked in Washington, DC as an aide to political strategist William Kristol and John Boehner. He served 9 years as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserves. He has a BA in Political Economy from Princeton and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar.
Clint Cox has been President of Anchor House, Inc. since founding the firm in 1995. Mr. Cox began focusing on the rare earth elements sector ten years ago, and has since immersed himself in the market. He is the leading expert for unbiased, grounded information on the rare earth industry and China’s involvement in particular. He is a graduate of Colgate University.
William H. Hess is Co-Ceo and Head of Research at PRC-Macro, a firm which develops economic information and forecasting services to fill the large analytical gaps that exist with respect to China’s economy. Previously Will served as President of China Monitor Inc (CMI), a platform for China macroeconomic and industry forecasting and analysis drawing on the extensive resources of partner company China Economic Information Network (CEInet). Prior to joining CMI he started a small macro advisory firm – China Analytics – in Beijing that was later merged with CMI. Earlier in his career he served as a Director of Sovereign and International Public Finance ratings with Standard & Poor’s in Hong Kong, and as the General Manager of Global Insight’s Beijing office of Global Insight prior to its acquisition by IHS in 2008. In this capacity he also led the development of the company’s China Regional Economic Service, as well as the China components of a number of the company’s other analytical products. Hess is a regular commentator on the Chinese economy for various networks.
ROUNDTABLE CONTRIBUTORS
Chris Berry is a renowned writer, speaker, and analyst of Energy Metals – those metals or minerals used in the generation or storage of energy. He is a student of the emerging Quality of Life Cycle emanating from the Emerging World and believes it will have profound effects across the globe in the coming years.
Mark Christopher is Senior Director and head of the Asia practice at The Arkin Group, an international risk consulting and intelligence firm, and a fellow with the Truman National Security Project.
Rui Fanis a Trade Consultant at Stewart and Stewart, focusing on trade remedy cases. Ms. Fan provides economic, financial, and data analysis for antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings in a wide array of industrial sectors.
Melvin Hill is Sales Manager at Aminco Resources, where he focuses on rare earths among other metals. Previously, he was General Manager and a Metal/Mineral Market Analyst at Asian Metals.
Darren Long is a Commodity Trader and Analyst at Ballymena Advisors. Previously, he was a commodities trader at ECOM Agroindustrial Corporation based in Dallas and Shanghai.
