Covid-19 & Vaccine & Travel

  • The WHO chief scientist stated that the number of confirmed cases and deaths of new coronary pneumonia currently reported in India is “severely underestimated.” The actual number of infections in India may be 20 or 30 times higher than the official report.
  • Indian experts predict based on the epidemic model that the new crown epidemic in India will reach its peak in May, and the average daily increase in cases in the next 10 days will reach 440,000.
  • Chinanews.com: India’s oxygen has changed from export to import, but it is still in an oxygen crisis. The price of a bottle of oxygen on the black market in India is US$600, but the per capita national income of India is only US$2,120. In order to alleviate the medical pressure, India requires that all liquid oxygen can only be used for medical treatment.
  • US State Department: Chinese students holding F/M visas will no longer be affected by the “entry to the US ban” starting from the fall semester of this year, that is, after August 1. They can fly directly from China to the US without transiting to a third country for 14 days . The F/M visa travel restrictions are lifted in addition to China, but also Iran, Brazil, South Africa, the Schengen area, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
  • According to Agence France-Presse, the global number of new crown vaccination doses has exceeded 1 billion, and residents of 207 countries and regions have received at least 1,002,938,540 doses of new crown vaccine.

Industry

  • China Steel Association: In the first quarter, China imported 283 million tons of iron ore, an increase of 8% year-on-year, and the import price averaged US$150.79 per ton, a year-on-year increase of 64.51%.
  • Goldman Sachs’ latest report stated that as many as 169 industries around the world have been hit by the shortage of chips to some extent, including all industries from steel products, concrete production to air-conditioning manufacturing, beer production, and even soap manufacturing.
  • Nikkei Chinese website: Since April, the freight rates from Japan to Europe and the United States have increased by about 10%-20%, which is 2-3 times that of the same period in 2019.

Company

  • Tesla: It is planning to increase production capacity as soon as possible. It is expected that in the next few years, the average annual growth rate of vehicle delivery will reach 50%, and the growth may be even faster in some years. It is expected that the Shanghai plant will continue to increase quarterly production. Recently, the proportion of localized parts procurement has been increased to more than 90%.

China

  • Ministry of Finance: From January to March, the total operating income of state-owned enterprises was 16.37 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.3%, and an average growth of 8.2% in two years. Among them, the central enterprises were 9.39 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.3%, and an average growth of 6.8% in two years. From January to March, the total profit of state-owned enterprises was 961.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.9 times, and an average increase of 8.3% in the two years. Among them, central SOEs amounted to 696.57 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.3 times, and an average growth rate of 9.5% over the two years.
  • In 2020, the number of unicorn companies in China has reached 251, with a total valuation of more than one trillion U.S. dollars. Among them, there are 82 unicorn companies in Beijing, accounting for more than 30% of the total; 44 in Shanghai, 25 in Hangzhou, 20 in Shenzhen, and 12 in Guangzhou. Among the 12 “super unicorn” companies in the country with a valuation of more than ten billion U.S. dollars, there are 7 companies in Beijing.