COVID-19

  • The epidemic in India is out of control, and neighboring countries in Southeast Asia are also threatened.

Trade & Product & Material

  • US media said that due to the epidemic last summer, swimming and bathing caused the use of chlorine disinfection tablets to surge, causing the United States to experience the worst chlorine shortage in history. According to analysis, the price of chlorinated disinfection tablets in the United States may rise by 70% this year, and prices in many regions have doubled. Biolabs, one of the largest chlorine producers in the United States, was previously damaged by a hurricane and will not be able to resume operations until the spring of 2022, further exacerbating the supply shortage. Some suppliers have begun to limit customer purchases.
  • The strong housing demand in the United States has combined with factors such as the shortage of containers, and timber prices have generally risen. The industry calls this phenomenon the “timber crisis”, and this situation may continue for a long time. In addition, on a global scale, there is a shortage of freight containers and it is difficult to make reservations for shipping vessels. These factors have also pushed up the price of wood.
  • SEMI: In the first quarter, the global silicon wafer shipment area increased by 4% from the previous quarter to 3337 million square inches, a new high since the third quarter of 2018; silicon wafer shipments increased by 14% year-on-year, and were 2920 million in the same period last year. Square inches.
  • GII: The global fumed silica market is valued at US$1.59 billion in 2020. Its compound annual growth rate from 2021 to 2027 will be 5.4%, and it is expected to exceed US$2.3 billion by 2026. (PS. Fumed white carbon black: the main raw material for silica gel products)
  • BMW of Germany and Ford of the United States announced recently that they will expand their investment in Solid Power, a startup that mainly develops all-solid-state batteries in the United States. This time, the total investment amount with other companies reached 130 million U.S. dollars. BMW and Ford will purchase all-solid-state batteries for test vehicles from them in 2022, respectively.

World and China

  • SpaceX: At 3:01 pm on May 4th, local time, 60 Starlink satellites will be launched using the Falcon 9 carrier rocket in Florida.
  • Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan: As of April 1, the population of children aged 14 and under in Japan was 14.93 million, a year-on-year decrease of approximately 190,000, a record low since 1950. After 47 consecutive years of decline, the proportion of children in the population fell to the lowest value of 11.9%. Children under the age of 2 accounted for 2.65 million, which is lower than other age groups, reflecting the decline in the number of births.
  • China Railway Group: On May 3, the railway passenger flow remained high. The national railways sent 13.745 million passengers, an increase of 3.2% over the same period in 2019. On May 4, the return passenger flow increased, and the national railways are expected to send 15.2 million passengers.
  • Xinhua News Agency: According to statistics, at least 200 million people are currently around the age of 35. For many middle-class people, the 35-year-old’s sense of crisis comes not only from the “ceiling” of job hunting, but also from the development dilemma of “cannot go up and down” and the pressure of survival of “the old and the small at the top”. Being negatively characterized has become a major source of anxiety; “the waves behind the Yangtze River pushes the waves forward” further aggravated the pressure.