Covid-19 & Vaccine

  • Georgia, Colorado, and parts of North Carolina have announced suspension of vaccinations against Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine.
  • At present, China has reported a total of 160 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, including 2 shots and 1 shot. To build an immune barrier in China in the future, it may require more than 1 billion people to be vaccinated against the new crown.
  • On April 7, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) officially confirmed that vaccination with the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine may cause very rare thrombotic symptoms.
  • On April 8, Australia’s new crown vaccination patients under the age of 50 are not recommended to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine
  • South Korea has decided to restart AstraZeneca’s vaccination work from April 12, but people under the age of 30 are still not recommended to receive the vaccine.

World

  • In 2020, global house prices will rise by an average of 5.6%, and there are 10 countries with an increase of more than 10%. The house prices in many countries in Europe and the United States have experienced the highest increase in housing prices in several years. Up to now, 9 countries around the world have started the mode of raising interest rates, but these measures can only be a drop in the bucket for soaring housing prices.
  • Global agricultural prices are rising.
    • The prices of agricultural, livestock and fishery products in South Korea soared 13.7% year-on-year, which was even higher than the 9.7% increase in February. In February, the average retail price of Korean rice surged by 31% year-on-year; the price increase was the sharpest for scallions, which were priced at RMB 43 per bundle, 2.5 times that of previous years.
    • Tofu in Indonesia is 30% more expensive than in December last year, the price of tortoise beans in Brazil has increased by 54% compared to January last year, and sugar in Russia is 60% higher than a year ago. After Brexit, British importing food cost has risen by about 8%. The number of hungry people in the United States is rising rapidly, breaking through 50 million.
  • Australia’s house prices rose 2.8% month-on-month in March, setting a record for the fastest monthly increase in 33 years.
  • Last week, affected by the weather, Burgundy, France, will lose at least 50% of its wine production this year.
    In a recent survey conducted by the German Restaurant and Hotel Industry Association, a quarter of the companies in the industry are now considering abandoning operations, and many hotels and restaurant operators are facing major financial crises.
  • On April 6, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released the latest “World Economic Outlook Report”, which predicts that the global GDP growth rate in 2021 and 2022 will be 6% and 4.4%, respectively.
    • IMF predicts that the U.S. economy will grow by 6.4%
    • IMF predicts that China’s economic growth will grow by 8.4%
    • IMF predicts that the Australian economy will grow by 4.5% this year, and the unemployment rate may rise slightly
    • IMF predicts that the GDP of advanced economies will grow by 5.1% in 2021
      • Japan’s economy will grow by 3.3%,
      • The British economy will grow by 5.3%,
      • The Eurozone economy will grow by 4.4%,
      • The economies of Germany, France, Italy, and Spain in the Eurozone will grow by 3.6%, 5.8%, 4.2%, and 6.4%, respectively
    • The GDP of emerging markets and developing economies will grow by 6.7%
      • The five ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) will grow by 4.9%,
      • India’s economy will grow by 12.5%, which will be the fastest growth rate among major countries
      • The Russian economy will grow by 3.8%,
      • Brazil’s economy will grow by 3.7%,
      • South Africa’s economy will grow by 3.1%,

Industry

  • GCC: Porsche is developing high-performance batteries that use silicon anodes to replace traditional graphite anodes in order to achieve higher energy density and fast charging performance.
  • LCD prices continued their overall upward trend in April, reaching US$82 for 32 inches. The panel quotations in March and April again exceeded expectations. The tightness of key components has caused the supply chain to be quite fragile, and the industry continues to be in short supply.
    After March, domestic corn prices fluctuated sharply.
  • IDC: In the first quarter of 2021, global PC shipments reached 84 million units, a year-on-year increase of 55.2%.
    Driven by the high boom in the overseas real estate market, the export of titanium dioxide continues to improve, and most of the export pending orders of titanium dioxide manufacturers have been scheduled to May. There is still room for upside in the short-term titanium dioxide price.

Company

  • Lomon Baili: Issued a price increase letter. Starting from April 11, the sales price of various types of titanium dioxide (including sulfuric acid method titanium dioxide and chloride method titanium dioxide) will be increased by 1,000 yuan/ton to various domestic customers on the basis of the original price. Increase of USD 150/ton for various international customers.
  • Plant meat brand Beyond Meat will build a factory in China (Jiaxing, a city next to Shanghai).