Trade

  • Vietnam: 4 aquatic product manufacturers suspended exports to China. On February 17, according to the General Administration of Customs of China, due to the detection of positive nucleic acid for the new crown pneumonia virus in the packaging samples of 4 batches of frozen aquatic products imported from Vietnam, the acceptance of product import declarations from 4 aquatic product enterprises in Vietnam will be suspended 1 week.
  • Kazakhstan: Newly opened land transport line to Oman. According to a report by the Kazakhstan News Agency on February 16, the Almaty-Oman Muscat international land transportation line was opened, reducing the transportation time to 12-14 days.
  • Galvanized coil: Pakistan initiated the first anti-dumping sunset review investigation. Recently, the National Tariff Commission of Pakistan issued an announcement to initiate the first anti-dumping sunset review investigation on galvanized coils originating in or imported from China. During the investigation of the case, the current anti-dumping duties remain in effect.

Industry

  • Canalys: Global sales of electric vehicles will reach 6.5 million in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 109%, accounting for 9% of all passenger vehicle sales. Affected by the new crown epidemic and a shortage of chips, the total sales volume of the global auto market in 2021 will only increase by 4%. Among them, in 2021, more than 3.2 million electric vehicles will be sold in the Chinese mainland market, accounting for half of the global electric vehicle sales.
  • TrendForce: The epidemic has indirectly led to a decline in buyers’ willingness to purchase relatively long-term memory. Therefore, most DRAM OEMs will show a decline in shipments in the fourth quarter of 2021, and the decline in the momentum of pulling goods will also cause DRAM quotations to reverse downward. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the total output value of DRAM decreased by 5.8% quarter-on-quarter to US$25.03 billion, and only a few suppliers such as SK Hynix bucked the trend.
  • IDC: In the fourth quarter of 2021, China’s tablet market shipped approximately 7.42 million units, a year-on-year increase of 20.9%. In 2021, China’s tablet market shipments will be about 28.46 million units, a year-on-year increase of 21.8%, the highest growth rate in the past seven years. For the full year of 2021, total global tablet shipments increased by 2.9% year-on-year, the highest level since 2016.
  • Platts: The spot price of North Sea Brent crude oil in the UK market reached US$100.8 per barrel on February 16, the first time since 2014 that it has exceeded 100. Affected by the spot price of Brent breaking through US$100 per barrel, the price of international crude oil futures once exceeded US$96 per barrel that day. The recent rise in international oil prices was mainly due to the fact that crude oil demand exceeded the expectations of organizations such as the International Energy Agency.

China

  • China Academy of Information and Communications Technology: In January, domestic mobile phone shipments reached 33 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 17.7%. 30 new mobile phone models were launched in the domestic market, a year-on-year decrease of 43.4%, of which 15 were 5G mobile phones, a year-on-year decrease of 53.1%, accounting for 50.0% of the number of new mobile phone models listed in the same period, and the shipment volume was 26.322 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 3.5%
  • NDRC: A new round of refined oil price adjustment window will open at 24:00 on February 17. No. 92 gasoline increased by 0.16 yuan per liter; No. 95 gasoline increased by 0.17 yuan per liter; No. 0 diesel increased by 0.17 yuan per liter. According to the estimated capacity of the 50L fuel tank of a general household car, filling a tank of No. 92 gasoline will cost 8 yuan more.
  • The National Development and Reform Commission and other four departments: jointly issued a notice, agreeing to start the construction of national computing power hub nodes in 8 places including Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and planned 10 national data center clusters. So far, the overall layout design of the national integrated big data center system has been completed, and the “East and West” project has been officially launched. The “number” in “East and West Calculation” is data, and “calculation” is the ability to process data.
  • Association for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication: In January, in the global payment currency ranking based on amount statistics, the RMB global payment ranking remained at the fourth place in the world, and its proportion rose from 2.7% in the previous month to 3.2%, a record high. According to the industry, the proportion of renminbi in global payments has further increased, which is basically consistent with my country’s high foreign trade boom and the continuous inflow of foreign capital attracted by renminbi assets.
  • Shanghai promotes the high-quality development of the spatial information industry. Shanghai recently issued the “Implementation Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Spatial Information Industry in the City”, aiming to create a source of scientific and technological innovation in the field of global spatial information, a new highland for digital and intelligent manufacturing, a gathering place for advantageous enterprises, and an output destination for application services by 2025.

Company

  • Apple: Scheduled to hold its annual shareholder meeting in the first week of March. Proxy consulting firm Institutional Shareholder Services urged Apple shareholders to reject Cook’s compensation package at a shareholder meeting, saying half of its awards lack performance standards. Cook’s total compensation for fiscal 2021 is $98.7 million, a more than five-fold increase from $14.8 million in fiscal 2020. Cook’s salary is 1,447 times that of the average Apple employee.
  • Honda Motor: Affected by chip shortages and supply disruptions caused by the epidemic, the production capacity of its Saitama and Suzuka plants in Japan will be cut by about 10% until at least early March. Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, Japanese factory capacity has been cut repeatedly due to chip shortages and supply chain disruptions. In November, Honda said its Japanese auto plants would return to normal production capacity in the first half of December.
  • Walmart overtakes Amazon as the first choice for e-commerce. Recently, Chicory, a CPG/Grocery digital commerce platform, found in a survey of more than 1,000 American adults that about 35% of the respondents said they would often shop online on the Walmart platform, compared to only 23% for Amazon. E-commerce preferred.
  • Shopee Japan relaxes the conditions for new sellers to open stores. According to Shopee’s Japanese subsidiary, starting this month, Shopee has lowered the minimum number of items to be listed, one of the conditions for Japanese sellers to open a new store, from 10 to five. The move significantly lowers the barriers to opening a new store on Shopee, opening up new possibilities for many sellers.
  • Google has announced the Android Privacy Sandbox. Aims to introduce newer, more private advertising solutions that limit the sharing of user information with third parties without compromising the short-term interests of advertisers. And plans to release a developer preview of the Privacy Sandbox within the year.
  • Mercedes-Benz’s annual profit quadrupled to 14 billion euros. According to German media reports, according to preliminary calculations, Mercedes-Benz expects an adjusted return on sales of 12.7% in 2021 and an EBIT adjusted for special effects of 14 billion euros in 2021. More than double the previous year.
  • XCMG: Zero breakthrough in the Brazilian market for 650-ton cranes. Recently, XCMG Brazil delivered Brazil’s first 650-ton all-terrain crane to the Brazilian crane rental company Mamuth. XCMG achieved zero breakthrough in the Brazilian market for 650-ton cranes.

World

  • Singapore: Economic growth of 7.6% in 2021, with manufacturing up 13.2%.
  • Japan: trade deficit for 6 consecutive months. According to data released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance on February 17, due to factors such as rising crude oil prices, the import volume increased significantly, and the trade deficit in January exceeded 2.19 trillion yen, a deficit for six consecutive months.
  • Vietnam: or stop approving renewable energy projects that have not yet started.
  • EU: Downgrade forecasts for economic growth in the euro zone. Recently, the European Commission said that due to a new wave of new crown infections, high energy prices and continued supply disruptions, it lowered its economic growth forecast for the euro zone in 2022. The GDP of the 19 euro zone countries is expected to grow by 4.0% this year. %, and will grow by 2.7% in 2023.
  • Canada: Annual inflation hits a 30-year high. Canada’s annual rate of inflation accelerated again in January, hitting a 30-year high of 5.1 percent, above analysts’ forecast of 4.8 percent, Statistics Canada said a few days ago, as food and housing costs continued to rise. This is the highest annual rate of inflation since it hit 5.5% in September 1991
  • South Korea: Attracting foreign direct investment to a record high. Recently, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Energy of Korea stated that the foreign direct investment (FDI) attracted by South Korea in 2021 will be 29.51 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 42.3%, a record high since 1962. And the country’s economic free zone attracted foreign investment of US$1.31 billion, the highest in three years, with a year-on-year increase of 42.8%.
  • Chile: The economy recovered strongly, growing by about 12%. According to a report released by the Central Bank of Chile a few days ago, in December 2021, Chile’s monthly economic activity index increased by 10.1% over the same period of the previous year. According to this index, Chile’s gross domestic product (GDP) will grow by about 12% in 2021. And the total trade volume for the year increased by 41% year-on-year, reaching 186.5 billion US dollars.
  • Egypt: It is planned to extend the Suez Canal waterway by 10 kilometers, and to widen and deepen a section of the waterway about 30 kilometers long. The expansion is expected to take two years and cost EGP 3 billion.
  • PIL: Misreporting and concealing the weight of the cargo will result in heavy fines. PIL issued a notice a few days ago: According to PIL/Carrier’s charging standards, if the weight of the misreported or concealed cargo exceeds the maximum rated load of the container, the consignor or consignee will be levied on a global scale USD30000/container.