COVID-19 & Vaccine

  • As of 0:00 on May 16, Hefei has received a total of 2.8157 million doses of vaccines. The highest single-day inoculation volume in Hefei was refreshed for two consecutive days.
  • The United Nations health agency said that the B.1.617 variant of the new coronavirus was first discovered in India in October. At present, it has spread to six major regions around the world including America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Eastern Mediterranean, Africa and Western Pacific.
  • More than 90% of the new coronavirus in Japan has been replaced by the more infectious “N501Y” mutant strain. The risk of severe illness caused by this variant strain may be 1.4 times that of the original strain.
  • Brazil has accelerated its deterioration, with 110 mutated new coronaviruses detected.
    The mountaineering activities on the northern slope of Mount Everest in the spring of 2021 were suspended, and the southern slope of Mount Everest ushered in the most crowded mountaineering season in history.

Industry

  • In April, China’s toy exports were 19.59 billion yuan, and the cumulative toy exports from January to April were 68.72 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 59.0%. From January to April, toy exports grew rapidly year-on-year, which not only reflects China’s current hot toy export situation, but is also related to the increase in raw material prices. It is reported that the US toy giant Hasbro has recently expressed its intention to increase prices, and attributed the reasons to rising costs including resin plastics, packaging materials, metals, and logistics.

Trade

  • South Korea and Israel formally signed the Free Trade Agreement FTA. South Korea became Israel’s first Asian free trade partner country. According to the agreement, South Korea’s zero-tariff products will reach 95.2% of the tax objective and 99.9% of the import value, and Israel’s zero-tariff products will reach 95.1% of the tax objective and 100% of the import value.

Company

  • LG Chem: It will invest 230 million yuan in Jiujiang Defu Technology, the third largest copper foil manufacturer in China, to stabilize the supply of core battery materials.
  • Apple’s official website shows that AirTag’s delivery time has been extended from 5-7 working days to 4-5 weeks. This means that the user will have to wait about a month to get this little “jewelry”.
  • Ali suffered a loss of 7.663 billion yuan in the first quarter.
  • Facebook downloads decreased by 30% year-on-year. AppFigures believes that this may be mainly related to the growth of TikTok.
  • Google was fined 102 million euros by Italy.

Shipment

  • The UK plans to build 8 free ports.
  • Hapag-Lloyd’s net profit increased 47 times in the first quarter. Hapag-Lloyd’s net profit (net result) soared to approximately 1.5 billion U.S. dollars (approximately 1.2 billion euros), compared to only 25 million euros in the same period last year.