Industry

  • Duisburg Port, Germany: Despite being affected by the epidemic, Duisburg’s container handling volume will increase by 5% in 2020, reaching 4.2 million TEUs, setting a new record. The port’s railway freight volume from China in 2020 has increased by about 70% compared to 2019. The number of China-Europe trains arriving in Duisburg in 2019 is an average of 35 to 40 trains per week, and starting from the second quarter of 2020, the number of China-Europe trains will increase to 60 trains per week.
  • Affected by the epidemic, U.S. airline passenger traffic dropped by 60.1% in 2020, setting a record low since 1984. According to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, there were 368 million passengers traveling by air in 2020, compared with 351.6 million in 1984.
  • Peru: Due to household needs, Peruvian sandals imports have surged. In December 2020, imports of sandals exceeded 1.07 million, an increase of 375.13% year-on-year, of which imports from China increased by 889.73%.
  • Alipay: This year, the number of users participating in red envelope New Year greetings increased by nearly 270%, the search volume related to “red envelope” rose by 538%, the red envelope issued by middle-aged and older people over 60 increased by 210%, and the red envelope received increased by nearly 430%. Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Guangdong regions almost covered Beijing is the only northern city in the top ten who love to send red envelopes; 260 million people write blessings online, and their consumption for watching movies, local travel, and shopping in the cloud has doubled.

Company

  • The monthly active users of Douyin video search have exceeded 550 million in China. This is the first time Douyin has announced the number of active search users.
  • Toyota Motor: Affected by the magnitude 7.3 earthquake that occurred in the eastern seas of Fukushima, Japan, the company’s 14 vehicle production lines in Japan will be suspended.

World

  • On February 16, Morocco received the second batch of COVID-19 vaccine from China. On January 27, Morocco received the first batch of new crown vaccines from Sinopharm Group, and officially launched the national new crown vaccination plan the next day. At present, Morocco has approved the use of two new coronavirus vaccines, Sinopharm Group and AstraZeneca.
  • Zimbabwe receives 200,000 doses of China’s new crown pneumonia vaccine (produced by Sinopharm)
  • Japan’s exports in January increased by 6.4% year-on-year, marking the second consecutive month of growth. Among them, exports to China increased by 37.5% year-on-year.
  • Panama: It plans to implement tax reforms to increase revenue for Internet companies, and the tax targets include major Internet companies such as Facebook, Netflix, and Uber.
  • In 2020, the Thai economy fell 6.1% year-on-year, the worst economic contraction since the 1998 Asian financial crisis. It is reported that the total value of Thailand’s foreign trade exports in 2020 has dropped by 6.01% year-on-year.
    Iceland requires entrants to hold a certificate of negative COVID-19 virus test within 72 hours.