china's restrictions on two rare earths used in the chip—making process takes effect from today. and officials roll out more measures to boost the chinese economy, as the latest data showed continued slowing. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm monica miller. starting from today, the 1st of august, china's export restrictions on two materials key to the semiconductor industry will take effect. the country produces a majority of the rare earths gallium and germanium for the global supply chain. china slapped export

restrictions on the materials last month, in a move widely seen as retaliation for american curbs on tech sales to china. nick marsh with more. you may never have heard of gallium or germanium, elements, so—called critical materials, and they are needed for chips in things like mobile phones, leds, satellites, military equipment as well, and the reason that they have been in the news is because most of it comes from china. 60% of the world's germanium and 80% of the world's gallium and from today, it will be much more difficult much more difficult for businesses to get their hands on it. let's look at what this materials move means for the rest of the world. the consensus is that it will be damaging not fatal

for the united states. the reason china dominates the market is not because it is the only place where gallium and germanium exists, but because it is by far the cheapest place you can get them from. you don'tjust dig them up from the ground, they are derived from a more complicated reduction process complicated production process and china has that capability. so governments and businesses will have to rely on cheaper substitutes and alternative sources. it means prices will go up, it means some products might be less effective and some production right be delayed. so this sort of poses a bit of an existential threat for western industry, it's the gradual erosion of capability. as it gravitates towards sourcing the materials reasonably. but in a broader sense, this threatens the overall narrative of globalisation, the idea that international markets will be able to deliver what you need, when you need it

at the price that you need. de—risking is what western governors like to call it, being less reliant on china, but this escalating tit for tat between the world's superpowers, that has got people worried about the weaponising of materials that you hold, the technologies that you have. a lot of people that think that would have global consequences also for the health of the planet and that is because a lot of crucial green technologies rely on these so—called critical materials. this is not a national problem, this is a human race problem, and so hopefully policymakers can come to the table, secure access to the critical materials that are really essential for the energy transition, so we can start to tackle some of the challenges around decarbonisation. earlier, i spoke with anna ashton of political risk consultancy firm eurasia group, who explained the impact of

the restrictions on supply chains. these two particular minerals are not the most widely used, they are not the ones that the united states and other countries are the most reliant on china for, they're not the hardest to get, but i think it's important to keep in mind that if china had put these sorts of restrictions on refined lithium or cobalt or something like that, it would be much more impactful than gallium and germanium. so china has intentionally selected ones that it can use to send a signal. they are clearly important to the semiconductor industry, but they are fungible, they can be swapped out for other things that in many instances are supplied by other places. so it is not going to create a crisis for the industry. speaking of restrictions, china has slapped export controls on certain drone—related equipment, like engines, lasers and anti—drone systems.

the new restrictions will kick in next month. the controls could affect some consumers. china is home to a big drone manufacturing industry that exports to multiple countries, like the us. beijing said the new move will safeguard national security interests, after criticism that its drones were used in the ukraine war. meanwhile, beijing has unveiled new measures to boost consumption in the world's second largest economy, targeting areas like real estate and the auto sector. this is as the latest manufacturing data in the country slumped for the fourth month in a row injuly. china's economy is showing signs of slowing, as demand weakens at home and abroad. earlier, i spoke with louise loo of independent advisory firm oxford economics, and she gave us her take on beijing's latest measures. we were very much hoping authorities would move from policy guidance to policy implementation. that really was not the case. we are seeing a lot more of rehashing what has been

said last week. so i don't think there's anything new in there. it does suggest to us that the government is moving towards this consumption—led driven stimulus, which frankly i think would be quite helpful, given where the weakness is going into the second half of this year. are they being aggressive enough to get china's economy back on track? i think ultimately the government will try to engineer towards a slower, healthier growth. and so gone are the days where we see big stimulus packages. of course, these big packages tend to have the impact of being able to boost confidence, so there is some scepticism over these kind of single—drip policy would help lift consumer sentiment at all, but i do think the fact that the government is more targeted, the fact that the measures are

targeted will help curb the downturn we saw in q2. consumer confidence, do you see this changing? yes, certainly. one of the surprises, at least for us, is that there is a signal coming from authorities that the regulatory environment is reaching some sort of inflection point. authorities at the very high level are pledging the support to private enterprises, especially for the platform economy, which is not the signal we got two or three years ago. i do think going forward the regulatory environment will be easier, which will help lift private sentiment that much higher in the second half of this year. that is louise loo. elsewhere in the world, lebanon's central bank governor riad salameh has stepped down after 30 years. the 73—year—old leaves office facing a slew of criticism, including presiding over a financial crisis as well as corruption charges both at home and abroad. lebanon has failed to appoint an official successor to mr salameh, who has headed the central bank since 1993 and has worked for 12 prime ministers.

an interim governor will take over in the meantime. india has released core industry output figures on monday. and while numbers touched a five—month high, the index of the country's industrial growth has slowed compared to last year. my colleague arunoday mukharji explains why. india's eight key industrial sectors have registered a growth of around 8% last month, which is the highest since the start of this year, but if you compared it to last year, it is a drop from 13%. these sectors include areas like cement, steel, coal, electricity, among a few, but if you talk about electricity it is the biggest contributor to the calculations when you're looking at india's output. electricity demand has picked up in the last few months. all the sectors have seen an uptick this time around except for one — crude oil. that continues to witness stagnant growth. why? because when you speak

to experts there is consensus global crude prices have been dropping, and in such a scenario, countries prefer the cheaper option. that is, to halt domestic production and rely more on imports. that is what india has done as well. so you continue to see negative growth in that territory. why are these industrial growth figures important? it is because these core sectors contribute about 40% of india's industrial growth, a key barometer to india's economic growth as well. arunoday mukharji there. well, from big oil to big electric. exxon mobil is betting on an ev boom and is currently exploring getting into the lithium market. michelle fleury has more. lithium is a key ingredient in rechargeable batteries. against this backdrop, exxonmobil, the most powerful among the traditional energy companies, is considering getting into the lithium market to produce the electric vehicle battery metal.

this is what darren woods, exxon�*s chairman and ceo, told investors during the company's recent earnings call. we're, i'd say, actively exploring that opportunity set and like what we're seeing so far. mr woods described lithium mining as a natural fit for the company. extracting the lithium is very consistent with a lot of the things that we do in our refineries and chemical plants and in some of our upstream operations. so that piece of the equation is, again, not new to the company. exxonmobil is rumoured to be in talks with tesla, ford motor, volkswagen and other auto—makers to supply lithium. that's according to a bloomberg report. lithium remains tiny compared to the fossil fuel business that has powered profits for exxon and for the other oil majors for the past several decades. but their interest suggests big oil thinks it may get bigger in the future. that's michelle fleury in new york. and that's it for this edition of asia business report.

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targets and doesn't listen to science. rishi sunak says more drilling will help to stop the uk relying on other countries for the fuel we use every day to fill our cars and heat our homes. some other stories now, and a woman in northumberland has warned others about the dangers of getting botox from non—medical practicioners after she said she couldn't open her eye for 16 weeks after getting botox from someone in their home. currently, cosmetic practitioners don't need to have any mandatory qualifications, even though some treatments require needles and can cause serious complications. at the world cup, the moroccan defender nouhaila benzina has become the first player to wear a hijab at a world cup match. she made her debut in morocco's win against south korea. and stormzy has pledged to support 36 more black

students in their three years of study at cambridge university. the stormzy scholarships were launched by the rapper five years ago. since then, cambridge uni say applications from the "stormzy effect". by 2026, 81 students will have received one. and finally, ten seconds where you might not want to look down. the three—time world slackline champion went the distance between two towers in qatar — walking along the rope at 185m in the air, setting a new world record. pretty daring, if you ask me. that's it. you're all caught up.