Germany has fired an early warning shot over Europe’s growing vulnerability in the copper sector, with Economy Minister Katherina Reiche urging EU-wide action to stop China from siphoning off critical scrap supplies. Speaking at a Siemens Energy event in Berlin, Reiche said Chinese buyers were acquiring “huge quantities” of copper scrap from the global market, leaving major German smelters starved of feedstock.

The remarks highlight how the global struggle over critical raw materials is increasingly shaping trade, industrial, and geopolitical agendas. Europe’s copper sector has been under mounting strain for several years as mined ore becomes more costly and competition for secondary supply tightens. China, which already dominates refined copper output and has built out vast smelting capacity, has accelerated imports of scrap as an alternative to concentrate.

Europe’s companies and investors remain wary of fresh public listings even as volatility recedes and capital floods back into equity markets, with geopolitical uncertainty and trade risks casting long shadows over IPO pipelines across the region.

While global markets have largely stabilized since the tremors caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff threats in April — and the subsequent partial reprieve — many investors are still reluctant to jump into new offerings, particularly amid persistent concerns over the conflict between Israel and Iran and broader tensions across the Middle East.

Factories across much of Europe and Asia limped through November, confirming that the global manufacturing rebound is still fragile and uneven, and that tariffs, China-related tensions and weak domestic demand are weighing more heavily than any tailwinds from improving trade talks.

In the euro area, manufacturing slipped back into contraction after a brief period of stabilisation. The latest purchasing managers’ index for the bloc dipped below the 50 mark that separates expansion from decline, with Germany again the main drag.