An Australian firm has been selected as the preferred bidder to take over the majority of British electric car battery business Britishvolt, which fell into administration last month. Britishvolt had been promising to build a £3.8 billion gigafactory producing batteries for electric cars in Blyth, Northumberland. It said it would employ 3,000 people and produce…

Britishvolt, an electric car battery company once praised by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has fallen into administration and made the majority of its 300 staff redundant. The company had been promising to build a £3.8 billion gigafactory producing batteries for electric cars in Blyth, Northumberland. But the project ran into serious difficulties months ago…

News Analysis Global supply chain interruptions are exacerbated by China’s lock on chemical processing. In 1987, former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping said, “The Middle East has oil, China has rare earths.” It seems that decades ago, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had already recognized the importance of controlling raw materials. Beyond mining and extraction, China’s…