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China’s Official Energy Finance in Emerging and Developing Economies Case 3. Saudi Arabia’s first green full-process heavy plate mill project
…ammonia, shipbuilding, offshore engineering and large-scale infrastructure. However, the country currently imports nearly all of its heavy plate steel, and domestic production has lagged the needs of an economy shifting towards more capital-intensive sectors and cleaner industrial processes.A new heavy-plate complex developed jointly by China Baowu Steel Group, Saudi Aramco and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia addresses this gap. Announced in May 2023, the facility, which will be Saudi Arabia’s first full process steel plate production plant, will be located in Ras al-Khair Industrial City and is scheduled to begin operations…
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Southeast Asia Energy Outlook 2026 Energy in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is becoming an increasingly important part of the global energy system. The region accounts for 9% of the world’s population and 4% of its GDP. Energy use has risen sharply since 2015, supported by industrialisation, urbanisation, rising incomes and expanding mobility needs. This growth has helped underpin economic development and wider access to modern energy, but it has also increased exposure to global fuel markets and added to emissions. The current Middle East crisis has tested Southeast Asia’s energy security and affordability, exposing the limits of short-term responses. The region was heavily exposed to Middle…
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Noé van Hulst
Vice-Chair, International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy (IPHE).
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World Energy Investment 2025 European Union
Energy investment in the European Union has shifted over the past decade to low-emissions generation. Grid investment is key to EU price convergence and market stability In the past decade, the European Union (EU) has increased its commitment to clean energy, with investment reaching almost USD 390 billion in 2025. Investment in low-emissions electricity was driven by the global energy crisis that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, subsequent favourable policy incentives and the declining cost of renewable technologies. In 2024 renewables generated 50% of electricity used in the EU, while fossil fuels accounted…
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Energy Efficiency Policy Toolkit Heat Pumps for Buildings
Heat Pumps for Buildings
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What Next for the Global Car Industry Pathways to global EV cost-competitiveness
Highlights The gap in competitiveness in electric car manufacturing between new market-entrants located in China and incumbents in other countries has grown in the past 5 years. Battery electric car production costs are over 30% lower in China than in advanced economies, and around a third of the difference can be attributed to the battery. However, a similar production cost gap exists for conventional cars. Battery cell prices are, on average, over 30% lower in China than in Europe and over 20% lower than in the United States. Reducing the manufacturing cost gap is possible – half is due to efficiency…
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Global Energy Review 2026 Key findings
…1.4 mb/d. The slower increase mainly reflected weaker growth in petrochemical feedstocks, notably in China, while continued growth of electric vehicles kept oil demand for road transport in check. Electric car sales continued their rapid growth, climbing over 20% to more than 20 million units – around one quarter of new car sales in 2025.Gas demand growth slowed markedly in 2025, rising by around 1%, down from the 2.8% recorded in 2024, amid relatively high prices in the first half of the year. Incremental demand was largely concentrated in the United States and European Union, supported by colder…
- Key findings
- Global trends
- Oil
- Natural gas
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Electricity Mid-Year Update 2025 Demand: Global electricity use to grow strongly in 2025 and 2026
…as significant strides in electrification, are expected to support growth in electricity use through 2026. Electricity demand is set to rise more than twice as fast as total energy demand over the forecast period. Overall, global electricity consumption will reach a new high of over 29 000 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2026.Following strong surges in electricity demand in 2024 driven by intense heatwaves and strong economic activity in the industrial and services sectors, the People’s Republic of China (hereafter, “China”) and India are expected to see more moderate growth rates in 2025. By contrast, US electricity demand is set…
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What Next for the Global Car Industry Global car industry manufacturing clusters
Regions with strong car industries tend to operate as clusters in which supplier factories are located alongside those of parts manufacturers and material producers. This is because close co-ordination between automakers and a wide network of specialised suppliers is essential to keep costs low. Such production ecosystems also facilitate the rapid exchange of complex, often tacit, knowledge, especially during vehicle development phases where design, engineering and manufacturing decisions must be tightly aligned. This interactive map shows global data on car assembly location, as well as more detailed regional automotive clusters.
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Donna-Jean Nicholson
Former Deputy Head of Communications and Digital Office.
