Omicron virus

  • Since February 3, South Korea has officially launched the Omicron response system. Most ordinary people no longer receive nucleic acid testing directly at the testing point, but must first use self-testing kits for self-testing. The demand for rapid antigen self-test kits has skyrocketed, and many pharmacies in South Korea have seen panic buying. Self-test kits sold on Korean online shopping platforms are also hard to come by, and the prices of related products have even more than quadrupled.

Trade

  • China, Ecuador: Officially launched free trade agreement negotiations.
  • China, Argentina: Deepen comprehensive strategic partnership.
  • China and Ireland: In 2021, the bilateral trade volume will exceed US$20 billion for the first time, reaching US$22.95 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27.2%.
  • India: Plans to export coal to many countries. Coal India said recently that it plans to start exporting coal to some neighboring countries as early as the end of this year. The company’s coal production accounts for about 80% of India’s total coal production, and it was basically for the domestic market before.
  • Cambodia: Rice exports have grown substantially. The Cambodia Rice Alliance released a report on February 6 that in January this year, Cambodia exported 53,000 tons of rice, a year-on-year increase of 54.7%, of which nearly 60% were exported to China, accounting for 59% of total exports.

Trade alert

  • Steel pipe butt weldment: The EU initiated the first anti-dumping sunset review investigation. The European Commission recently issued an announcement stating that in response to the application of the EU Stainless Steel Butt Welding Industry Protection Committee, the first anti-dumping sunset review investigation was initiated on steel pipe butt welds originating in mainland China and Taiwan.

Industry

  • Strategy Analytics: Global notebook computer shipments will increase by 19% year-on-year in 2021, reaching 268 million, a new high.
  • Korea Automobile Research Institute: Last year, the global pure electric vehicle market sold 4.7177 million units, a year-on-year increase of 112%, accounting for 5.8% of the overall automobile market share, a year-on-year increase of 2.9%. The global electric vehicle sales leader is still Tesla, with a total of 921,600 units sold last year, followed by China’s SAIC Group, Germany’s Volkswagen, and BYD.
  • On the evening of February 6, the Chinese women’s football team won the Asian Cup championship trophy, and Alipay announced a reward of 13 million yuan for the Chinese women’s football team.
  • SNE Research: The top five global power battery installed capacity in 2021 are CATL, LG New Energy, Panasonic, BYD, and SK On. CATL’s global installed capacity in the power battery field reached 96.7GWh last year, with a market share of 32.6%, ranking first in the world. This is the fifth consecutive year that CATL has been on the throne of the world’s largest power battery company.

Company

  • Tesla: In 2021, revenue in the Chinese market will reach US$13.844 billion, a year-on-year increase of 107.8%. The sharp increase in revenue in China was mainly due to the increase in production and delivery of the Shanghai Gigafactory. China is currently Tesla’s largest market outside the United States, accounting for 25.7% of the company’s revenue and 51.7% of global deliveries.

China

  • SAFE: At the end of January, foreign exchange reserves reported US$3,221.6 billion, down US$28.5 billion from the end of 2021. Gold reserves stood at 62.64 million ounces, unchanged from the previous month.
  • China UnionPay: From New Year’s Eve to the seven-day holiday of the Spring Festival on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, the transaction amount of UnionPay online was 2.03 trillion yuan, and the number of transactions was 3.005 billion, an increase of 22.4% and 18.4% respectively compared with the Spring Festival holiday in 2021. Consumption such as retail shopping, catering, film and television entertainment closely related to residents’ daily life has grown significantly.

World

  • Chile: Strong economic recovery. According to a recent report released by the Central Bank of Chile, in December 2021, Chile’s monthly economic activity index increased by 10.1% year-on-year. According to the index, Chile’s GDP will grow by about 12% in 2021.