Trade alert

  • Low carbon wire rod: Thailand ends anti-dumping duties. Recently, Thailand’s Dumping and Subsidy Review Committee issued an announcement, deciding to terminate the implementation of anti-dumping measures against low-carbon wire rods originating in China.
  • Aluminium foil: India made its first anti-dumping sunset review final ruling. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry of India issued an announcement to make the first anti-dumping sunset review affirmative final ruling on aluminum foil originating in or imported from China with a thickness of 5.5 microns to 80 microns, suggesting that anti-dumping duties should continue to be imposed on China’s products involved in the case, with a tax amount of $469 ~$1106/metric ton.
  • Brazil has announced that it will abolish taxes on all foreign exchange transactions. It was announced that the Financial Transaction Tax (IOF) related to foreign exchange transactions will be phased out over an eight-year period by 2029. The tax cuts are intended to align with the OECD’s “Guidelines for the Liberalisation of Capital Movements” in preparation for Brazil’s accession to the organization.
  • Amazon signs memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia to develop the country’s e-commerce sector. Since Amazon launched its Saudi Arabia site in 2020, it has created 1,500 jobs for the region.

China

  • The price of nickel in new energy vehicle power batteries has surged 130%, while the prices of cobalt, lithium and aluminum have risen 16%-88% this year. Since March, nearly 20 new energy vehicle companies, including Tesla, BYD, Xiaopeng Motors, and Nezha Motors, have announced price increases, involving nearly 40 models. Recently, ORA and WM Motor have also issued price increase statements, and the comprehensive guide price after subsidies will be increased by 6,000-26,000 yuan.
  • On March 20, the blue warning of heavy rain will continue to be issued, including heavy rain in 10 provinces and cities including southern Henan, Shanghai, and northwest Zhejiang, heavy rain in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and local strong convective weather such as thunderstorms, strong winds or hail.
  • Due to the increase in raw material prices and the gradual start of the market and the low storage space, the cement prices in Shanxi, Henan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Guangdong and other places increased; cement prices are expected to rise slightly.
  • China’s first subway Beidou positioning system has started construction on the Beijing Metro Capital Airport Line. This is the largest indoor space navigation and positioning system in China and is expected to be completed within this year. The positioning accuracy of the underground space of the subway station is improved to better than 2 meters, and passengers can use the mobile phone map to realize the navigation and positioning of the complex space in the subway station through three-dimensional navigation.
  • CCTV Finance: China’s grain market is adequately supplied, and fluctuations in international agricultural prices have limited impact on my country. Customs data show that China basically does not need to import wheat and rice, which are staples. In addition to sufficient raw grain reserves, the current 36 large and medium-sized cities and regions with volatile markets have a guaranteed capacity of more than 20 days for finished grain and oil stocks.

Company

  • Saudi Aramco (Petroleum): In fiscal year 2021, the net profit was about US$109.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 124%; the total revenue was about US$359 billion, a year-on-year increase of over 75%.
  • EQT Group (Europe): Announced that it will acquire Baring Asia for a total consideration of EUR 6.8 billion, which is equivalent to RMB 47.8 billion.
  • eBay has announced that it will launch its first digital wallet. Enables sellers to store the proceeds of sales in a digital wallet and also use the funds to shop on eBay or deduct commissions on sales.
  • Maersk received subpoena for US maritime antitrust investigation.
  • UPS announced the suspension of shipping operations in Shenzhen and Dongguan.
  • Hurun Global Rich List: Elon Musk is the richest man. Among them, Tesla’s 50-year-old Elon Musk became the world’s richest man for the second consecutive year with 1.29 trillion yuan, an increase of 4% over last year. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos was second and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault was third.

World

  • Iran’s oil minister said that he intends to increase crude oil and condensate exports to a maximum of 1.4 million barrels per day in accordance with the annual budget, and plans to increase crude oil and condensate production capacity from 3.7 ~4 million barrels/day to 570 million barrels/ day. But no timetable for achieving that goal was disclosed. Iran’s oil reserves are among the highest in the world and it is one of the main members of OPEC.
  • The Indian government has decided to resume commercial international routes that were previously suspended due to the epidemic on March 27. The tourism industry in Mumbai, India, which has been hit by the COVID-19 epidemic for more than two years, has finally ushered in the dawn of recovery.
  • Cambodia adjusts entry and epidemic prevention measures. Cambodia has resumed visas on arrival, and inbound passengers no longer need to present a negative health certificate for COVID-19 issued within 72 hours before departure, nor do they need to undergo a rapid test for COVID-19 at the airport.
  • Canada will lift COVID-19 testing requirements for incoming travelers. From April 1, the requirement for travelers who have been vaccinated against the new coronary pneumonia virus to be tested for the new coronary pneumonia virus before entering the country will be lifted. However, inbound passengers may still undergo random nucleic acid testing at the airport, and they will still need to upload information using ArriveCAN.
  • Germany’s deputy chancellor and economy minister said that if Germany cuts off gas supplies from Russia by next winter and fails to get enough supplies, Germany will not be able to keep homes heated and support industry running. In 2021, 45% of the EU’s natural gas imports will come from Russia.
  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: In addition to food, global feed raw material prices also remain high. The total corn output of Russia and Ukraine accounts for about 4.73% of the global total, and the export accounts for about 18.66% of the global export; the total wheat output of the two countries accounts for about 13.97% of the global output, and the export accounts for about 28.54% of the global export. Affected by the situation, the price of feed raw materials such as wheat, corn and soybean meal has fluctuated significantly recently; high demand and fluctuations in natural gas prices have also pushed up fertilizer costs, and the price of urea has more than tripled in the past 12 months.
  • The World Food Programme has warned that 2022 will be a catastrophic year of hunger.
  • The EU overtook ASEAN to become China’s largest trading partner. In the first two months of 2022, the bilateral trade volume between China and the EU reached US$137.16 billion.
  • The Fed raised interest rates and raised the target range of the federal funds rate to 0.25%~0.5%.
  • The strong earthquake caused the temporary shutdown of many manufacturing plants in Japan, involving Renesas Electronics, Sony Corporation, and Nippon Paper.
  • On March 18, Malaysia announced that the RCEP came into effect.
  • Tanzania actively promotes the construction of the digital economy and plans to invest US$150 million to build the “Digital Tanzania Project” to accelerate the construction of Tanzania’s digital economy.