China

  • Ministry of Commerce: China has become the world’s largest foreign capital inflow country, achieving “three increases” in the total amount of foreign investment, growth rate, and global share. In 2020, the country’s total actual utilization of foreign capital was 999.98 billion yuan, an increase of 6.2%, the utilization of foreign capital in high-tech industries increased by 11.4% year-on-year, and 39,000 foreign-funded enterprises were newly established. In terms of regions, the total amount of foreign capital actually utilized in the eastern region increased by 8.9%, accounting for 88.4%; the total amount of foreign capital actually utilized in the pilot free trade zone was 179 billion yuan, with 6,472 newly established foreign-funded enterprises, which accounted for 16.8% and 17.9% of the country.
  • China has once again become India’s largest trading partner. The bilateral trade volume between China and India will reach 77.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. India may approve 45 new Chinese investments.

Industry

  • The global manufacturing PMI index fell. In January 2021, the global manufacturing PMI was 54.4%, down 0.8 percentage points from the previous month, and remained above 50% for seven consecutive months. In terms of subregions, the manufacturing PMI of Asia, Europe, and the Americas all declined to varying degrees from the previous month, while the PMI of the African manufacturing industry rose slightly from the previous month.

Company

  • Four Mainland Chinese companies (Huawei, Tencent, Xiaomi, Telecommunications Science and Technology Research Institute) were selected as one of the top 100 global innovation institutions.
  • Apple surpassed Samsung to become the number one mobile phone in the world. Apple’s market share in the smartphone market is 20.8%, while Samsung’s is 16.2%. This is the first time Apple has won the top spot since 2016.
  • Amazon launches Build It new platform.

Trade/Import/ Export

  • Kazakhstan: Attracting private investment in the building materials sector. Kazakhstan News Agency reported on February 23 that Kazakhstan plans to attract about 63 billion tenge of private investment to implement multiple building materials projects.
  • Panama: Resuming large-scale beef exports to China
  • Finland is affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic. In 2020, the total consumption of tourists in Finland is 9.3 billion euros, down 42% year-on-year. Among them, the consumption of foreign tourists in Finland plummeted by 67% to 3.3 billion euros.
  • In 2020, the total sales volume of Chinese electric passenger car manufacturers’ brands in 18 major European automobile markets reached 23,836, an increase of more than 13 times compared with the same period in 2019, with a market share of 3.3%.
  • Toothbrush: Turkey extends safeguard measures. The Turkish tax code is 9603.21.00.00.19.
  • Tetrafluoroethane: India initiates the second anti-dumping sunset review investigation.

Shipment

  • China’s foreign trade container throughput increased significantly. The China Ports Association monitored that the container throughput of the eight major hub ports increased by 60.7% year-on-year, of which, the first half of the year increased by 73% and the mid-day by 48%, the foreign trade container throughput increased by 65.5%, and the domestic trade increased by 43%. In terms of ports, the growth rate of Shenzhen Port exceeded 100%, the growth rate of Shanghai Port was nearly 90%, and the growth rates of Ningbo Zhoushan Port and Tianjin Port exceeded 70% and 60% respectively.
  • Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Myanmar and the liner business was interrupted.
  • Port of Montreal, Canada will go on a new round of strike.

World

  • In 2021, the ranking of the world’s top four economies will remain unchanged, followed by the United States, China, Japan and Germany; India fell out of the top five and was surpassed by the United Kingdom. According to current trends, India’s economic aggregate will once again surpass that of the UK, and it will have to wait until at least 2026. India is the major economy hit hardest by the epidemic, and up to 200 million people may fall back into poverty.
  • The bird flu outbreak in Europe has caused egg prices to rise in many European countries. Poland, the EU’s largest producer of poultry meat and the sixth largest egg producer, has culled about 5 million poultry, including a large number of laying hens. At the end of January, wholesale egg prices in Poland rose by 18% to 20%.
  • Nigeria intends to sell part of its national assets to raise 13.58 trillion naira in 2021 budget funds. The assets to be sold span 36 industries including energy, industry, communications, and infrastructure, with a target of 493.4 billion naira (approximately US$1.16 billion) in funding, which is expected to be sold between January 2021 and November 2022.