In a change to the scheduled programme, this issue we will be looking at the early impacts, and some of the potential opportunities, for China’s steel industry resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Our review of changing environmental policies will wait until a wider policy review following the conclusion of the ‘Two Sessions’ meetings in our next issue.

The key geopolitical moment in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has knock-on implications across industries and geographies. Many of these impacts will be playing out in the weeks, months and years to come. But as a first step, we will look at China’s direct exposure to the conflict in terms of trade.

China does not like to release data for January due to the New Year holiday, and so this issue of CSI, as every year, will look a little different. But even without official new trade industry or downstream data, there is plenty to look at, including a first look at targets set in the latest Government Work Report.