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Missiles or Pipelines? Taiwan’s Crisis & Enbridge’s Boom

Missiles or Pipelines? Taiwan’s Crisis & Enbridge’s Boom

Can Taiwan survive a supply shock? Plus, what Enbridge knows about the massive oil surge coming to the Canadian basin.

Editorial Team
May 12, 2026

You Can’t Build Missiles Out of IOUs: Taiwan’s Raw Material Reality Check

By slashing funds for domestic weapons manufacturing, Taipei is betting its defense on American contractors who still rely on Beijing for critical minerals.

https://www.juniorstocks.com/you-can-t-build-missiles-out-of-io-us-taiwan-s-raw-material-reality-check

The $25 Billion Blunder: Taiwan's Outsourced Defense Relies on Chinese Minerals

When President Lai Ching-te's proposed defense budget was slashed to $25 billion, Taiwan made a massive supply chain gamble. By defunding domestic manufacturing to import finished US weapons, Taipei inadvertently transferred its geopolitical vulnerabilities directly to the American defense industrial base.

The glaring paradox?

The very contractors tasked with fulfilling these massive arms orders, Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), RTX (NYSE: RTX), Boeing (NYSE: BA), and General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), rely heavily on critical minerals like antimony and gallium that are overwhelmingly controlled by China. Taiwan is essentially paying the US to deter Beijing using raw materials that Beijing regulates.

China is already weaponizing this leverage through export controls. While Western mineral explorers like Military Metals Corp (CSE: MILI | OTCQB: MILIF) are actively advancing projects in Europe to secure allied supply chains and bypass this monopoly, moving from exploration to production takes time. By abandoning local manufacturing, Taiwan missed a vital window to stockpile these materials, leaving its deterrence dangling on a fragile trans-Pacific tether.

If true deterrence relies on raw materials controlled by the adversary, is it really deterrence at all?

Why Europe Must Modernize Its Smelters to Survive the Next Supply Shock

Ignoring the quiet collapse of our foundational heavy industries threatens to hand the keys to our defense, tech, and renewable energy sectors over to foreign monopolies.

https://www.juniorstocks.com/why-europe-must-modernize-its-smelters-to-survive-the-next-supply-shock

Richard Holtum is issuing a stark warning ahead of the EIT RawMaterials Summit: Europe's critical metals processing is on the brink of collapse, and our national security is going down with it.

As the CEO of Trafigura points out, losing foundational smelters means losing the vital by-products they create, like antimony for munitions and germanium for high-tech applications.

He highlights Nyrstar, a major smelting business partnered with Trafigura, noting that upgrading a site for germanium recovery costs €100 million.

While that is a bargain for continental security, it is completely commercially unviable against subsidized foreign competition without coherent, pan-European policy and public co-investment.

Are we genuinely prepared to hand the keys to our defense and tech sectors over to foreign monopolies?

Algorithms Need Wires: How Copper Forged Itself as the Currency of AI

As artificial intelligence booms and global supply chains tighten, the red metal pushes past historic milestones toward an impending and severe global deficit.

https://www.juniorstocks.com/algorithms-need-wires-how-copper-forged-itself-as-the-currency-of-ai

The artificial intelligence revolution isn't just written in code, it's forged in copper. The red metal has surged past $14,000 a ton, completely ignoring macroeconomic headwinds like US President Donald Trump’s reported frustration over the fragile Iran war truce.

Instead, the market is laser-focused on the realities of physical supply and demand. Ewa Manthey, commodity strategist at ING (NYSE: ING), notes that breaching this price threshold highlights extreme market tightness and dwindling inventories.

Investors are paying close attention, with Bart Melek at TD Securities, observing that traders are placing massive options wagers on further price gains.

The long-term outlook is also shifting rapidly.

Orest Wowkodaw of Scotiabank, recently revised his forecast to project a massive 350,000-ton global deficit by 2027, creating a "perfect storm" for upside movement.

Are we on the verge of a historic metal supercycle, and is the broader tech sector truly prepared for this looming supply squeeze?

Enbridge Executives Welcome Pipeline Competition in Booming Canadian Basin

Amid surging global demand and a $40 billion capital backlog, the energy giant views rival infrastructure projects not as a threat, but as a resounding validation of the Canadian oil basin's robust future.

https://www.juniorstocks.com/enbridge-executives-welcome-pipeline-competition-in-booming-canadian-basin

Why Enbridge Views Pipeline Competition as a Win

The Canadian oil basin is getting crowded, but Enbridge (TSX: ENB) is unfazed.

CEO Gregory Ebel and EVP Colin Gruending view rival projects from South Bow (TSX: SOBO), Bridger Pipelines LLC, and Trans Mountain not as threats, but as massive votes of confidence in a booming market.

Rather than sweating the competition, Enbridge is leaning into a $40 billion capital backlog.

Their strategy?

Rapid, capital-efficient growth through their Mainline Optimization Program and diversifying with projects like a Texas wind facility for Meta (NASDAQ: META).

Will optimizing existing assets keep them on top?

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