From China Minmetals to Baosteel, Chinese miners have been bulking up on offshore acquisitions this year, chalking up the highest year-to-date volumes in five years.
According to Dealogic data, Chinese miners have announced $8.7 billion worth of acquisitions so far this year, exceeding the $2.8 billion-worth of business conducted by oil and gas companies. This is a reversal of past trends, when much of the activity was focused on China's oil and gas sector, with the likes of Cnooc, Sinopec and CNPC closing jumbo acquisitions.
In the last two years, Asian national oil companies accounted for $87.6 billion of offshore acquisitions, of which $56.8 billion came from...