Trade alert

  • Graphite electrodes: The Eurasian Economic Union has postponed the collection of anti-dumping duties, and the date of collection of anti-dumping duties on graphite electrodes originating in China has been postponed to October 1.
  • Algeria: Today, from March 13, 2022, importers related to importing raw materials from overseas and goods for resale must be accompanied by additional documents.

Trade

  • US: LNG exports hit record high in March. U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports rose nearly 16 percent to a record high of about 7.43 million tonnes in March, with shipments to Europe continuing to dominate, Refinitiv data showed.
  • Vietnam: Seeking to import coal to ease power shortage. Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade recently stated that it plans to import 5 million tons of coal from Australia every year for power production. Vietnam Electricity Group has previously said there is a huge gap in its coal supply.
  • Morocco and Israel: Plan to expand trade and investment cooperation. Recently, the Moroccan cabinet meeting approved a trade and investment cooperation agreement with Israel, planning to increase the annual trade volume between the two countries to 500 million US dollars, and to build industrial zones in aerospace, automobile and other fields.
  • The proportion of RMB in global foreign reserves hit a record high again. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently announced that in the fourth quarter of 2021, the proportion of RMB in global foreign exchange reserves rose from 2.66% in the third quarter of last year to 2.79%, ranking fifth in the world.
  • Thailand has extended the tax holiday for imported anti-epidemic materials to September 30. The bill stipulates that imports of goods, masks and raw materials used for the treatment, diagnosis or prevention of new coronary pneumonia will be exempted.
  • Australia announces tariffs on Russia and Belarus.
  • The U.S. reinstated tariff exemptions on 352 Chinese products.
  • Brazil has temporarily lifted import duties on some goods. From now until the end of this year, import taxes on 7 products will be cancelled, including: ethanol (the original import tax is 18%, the same below), coffee (9%), margarine (10.8%), cheese (28%), Pasta (14.4%), sugar (16%), soybean oil (9%). From April 1 to the end of this year, the import tax rate levied on electronic products and mechanical equipment will be reduced by 10%, a measure aimed at promoting the purchase of equipment for industrial production and reducing the prices of some technical items. In March last year, the Brazilian government cut tariffs on capital goods and telecommunications imports by 10 percent. Overall, the cuts will be 20%.
  • Argentina’s central bank strictly controls foreign exchange outflows. From March 4th, the central bank will add a category (A or B) for SIMI licenses, and importers will obtain exchange quotas according to their categories.

Shipment

  • The shipping cost of CMA CGM will be calculated based on the actual sailing date. CMA CGM will implement the rule that “the actual shipping date will be the applicable date of the shipping fee” for all routes exported to China (except North America). This regulation will come into effect on April 1, 2022 (the actual sailing date). The notice, click here >>>>
  • New regulations for air transport of lithium batteries.
  • (a).According to the official news of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), IATA has revised the regulations for the separate transportation of lithium batteries. The new regulations have actually come into effect on January 1, 2022, but there will be a transition period before March 31, 2022. Make adjustments to 100% compliance with the new regulations, and the new regulations will come into effect after April 1.
  • (b).This regulatory change is mainly a revision of the multi-page packaging instructions PI 965 and PI 968 of the 63rd edition of the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations. The most significant impact of this dangerous goods regulation change is the removal of the packaging instructions for PI 965 Lithium-ion cells and batteries (including power banks) and PI 968 Lithium metal/primary cells and batteries.
  • (c).This change does not affect PI 966, PI 967, PI 969 or PI 970 for Section II lithium-containing battery products. Neither Lithium Ion nor Lithium Metal batteries may be shipped in accordance with Part II. As a result, all shippers who ship lithium batteries themselves are required to complete a Dangerous Goods Declaration, additional marking and labelling, and complete Dangerous Goods Airlift training.
  • MSC increases false-positive charges. From April 1, 2022, export false positives will be adjusted for all shipments from Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam to all destinations Fee (CMD) increased to $3500/container. This fee applies to:
    (a). Any change in the Named Account after the MSC booking is confirmed, so that the shipping fee is lower than the original rate;
    (b). Any abuse of the contract (including where the name, port, and/or customer information is different from the original contract).
    (c). On March 19, 2021, MSC issued an announcement to implement a misdeclaration fee (CMD), which was charged at USD 1,000/container.
  • Ho Chi Minh City announces a fee for the use of seaport infrastructure. The director of the Ho Chi Minh City Inland Waterway Port Authority recently announced that Ho Chi Minh City will officially charge for the use of infrastructure projects and public utility service projects in the port area within its jurisdiction. Among them, the customs declaration fee for import and export goods is 250,000 VND/20-foot container.
  • For the first time, the new land-sea passage has opened a new direct route to the Indian Ocean. Recently, the China-Myanmar-India international intermodal train (Chongqing-Yangon-Indian Ocean) of the new land-sea corridor was launched at the Chongqing Railway Container Center Station.

Industry

  • Forbes: Released the 2022 list of the world’s billionaires. The number of people on the list decreased by 87 from last year to 2,668; the total wealth reached 12.7 trillion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 3%. The number of richest people in the United States is 736, ranking first in the world. Among them, Elon Musk ($219 billion) and Jeff Bezos ($171 billion) ranked first and second. In addition, two Chinese billionaires are among the TOP25, Zhong Shanshan ranked 17th with a fortune of US$65.7 billion, and Zhang Yiming ranked 25th with a fortune of US$50 billion.
  • The first Global Metaverse Conference will be held in Shanghai on April 20. The development and maturity of the Metaverse will form the first vision of a digital world at the level of a community of shared future for mankind in the construction of a future digital society. In the next 3-5 years, Metaverse will enter the embryonic exploration period, and progressive technological breakthroughs and business model innovations in the fields of VR/AR, NFT, AI cloud, PUGC game platform, digital human, and digital twin city will emerge one after another. The latest report from Citi shows that by 2030, the scale of the metaverse industry may reach 13 trillion US dollars, and more than 5 billion people around the world will be connected to it.
  • KPMG: As the underlying ecological support of the Metaverse, hardware infrastructure not only defines the basic technical framework of the Metaverse industry, but its development path also points the way for the future industry. From the perspective of the two interactive technology paths, the virtual reality terminal is expected to reach 76.7 million units in 2024; while the concept of brain-computer interface is still in an experimental state. From the perspective of technical reserves, XR equipment is currently the most promising interactive equipment to meet the current development needs of the Metaverse, and it will also become the focus of the future Metaverse infrastructure construction.
  • Beijing Information Industry Association: Release the “2022 China Metaverse White Paper”. The emergence of the Metaverse has three needs. Capital needs new stories, technology needs new scenarios, and users need new experiences. In China, if the metaverse develops normally, it is possible to reach half of GDP.

Industry China

  • CCTV Finance: According to relevant practitioners, since late February, two rounds of price increase letters issued by upstream paper mills have been received. Each price increase is about 300 yuan per ton. March and April were the peak seasons for the sales of cultural paper, but the overall sales this year were a bit flat. At present, more than 70% of the wood pulp in China is imported.
  • Ministry of Communications: During the Qingming(Tomb Sweeping Day) holiday this year, the national postal industry is expected to receive 660 million parcels, a year-on-year decrease of 13.30% and an increase of 24.10% over the same period in 2020; it is expected to deliver 690 million parcels, a year-on-year decrease of 12.80% and an increase of 27.10% over the same period in 2020 .
  • Since March, the overall sales of pre-made vegetables across the country have grown significantly. Among them, semi-finished vegetables and snacks are the most popular, and the sales of many single products have increased by more than 50% compared with February. Practitioners said that throughout March, the sales of pre-made vegetables across the country increased by more than 100% year-on-year, and the Shanghai area exceeded 250% year-on-year in the past half month.
  • Ministry of Culture and Tourism: In the 3 days of the Qingming Festival holiday, 75.419 million domestic tourist trips were made across the country, a year-on-year decrease of 26.2%, and it recovered to 68.0% of the same period in 2019 on a comparable basis; domestic tourism revenue was 18.78 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 30.9%, recovery to 39.2% in the same period in 2019. In the western tourism market, which was less affected by the current round of the epidemic, the tourism recovery rate during the Qingming Festival holiday was relatively high.

Company

  • MSC announced an investment of approximately US$3.4 billion to order ships. Recently, MSC, the world’s largest container shipping company, announced that it will invest about US$3.4 billion to order up to 28 LNG dual-fuel container ships.
  • Shopify has partnered with European Scalapay. Canadian e-commerce Shopify recently announced that it has reached a partnership with the European version of “Huabei花呗” Scalapay to help merchants provide installment payment services for consumers. Through this partnership, merchants will be able to easily provide consumers with interest-free three-payment services.
  • Byrontech announced a surge in full-year revenue and net profit. BioNTech announced that in 2021, the company’s revenue was 18.9767 billion euros, compared with 482.3 million euros in the same period last year; net profit was 10.2925 billion euros, compared with 15.2 million euros in the same period last year. And it is expected that the number of signed orders for the new crown vaccine delivered in 2022 will increase to 2.4 billion doses.

World

  • EU President Von der Leyen: Europe has proposed a fifth round of sanctions against Russia, including a ban on the import of coal worth 4 billion euros from Russia every year; a comprehensive ban on transactions with four major banks, including VTB; and a ban on exports to Russia Semiconductors, automobiles and transportation equipment, with a total export value of about 10 billion euros; prohibiting Russian companies from participating in EU procurement tenders; prohibiting any form of financial support for Russian state institutions; prohibiting Russian ships from docking at EU ports.
  • WHO: While air quality is being monitored in more than 6,000 cities in more than 110 countries, the air they breathe contains unhealthy levels of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. Calls on countries to reduce fossil fuel use and take other practical steps to reduce air pollution levels.
  • United States: The Treasury Department stopped the Russian government from paying U.S. dollar debts through accounts opened with U.S. banks. A spokesman for the U.S. Treasury Department said a few days ago that the U.S. government blocked a $552.4 million debt payment due on the same day, including Russia, and announced its decision to cut off Russia’s access to frozen funds.
  • United States: More than 20 states have outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, and egg prices may rise further.
  • Japan: Affected by rising raw material prices, several large chain convenience stores in Japan have raised the selling prices of their main products such as bento. 7-11 raised the sales prices of about 60 kinds of products such as bento, noodles, bread, etc., by about 2% to 15% of the sales price excluding consumption tax. In addition, FamilyMart raised the prices of 10 kinds of fried foods, including croquettes and some fried chicken nuggets, by 3% to 12% of the sales price including consumption tax.
  • United Kingdom: Russia and Ukraine account for 80% of the world’s sunflower oil supply, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has caused problems in the sunflower oil trade. British media said the problem of sunflower oil shortage may continue for 12-18 months. In response to the shortage, food manufacturers such as potato chips and energy bars in the UK are studying to change the formula to replace sunflower oil with rapeseed oil, and the price of rapeseed oil has also increased by 50%-70%.
  • Germany: The German Federal Network Agency will temporarily host the German branch of Gazprom. In addition, Germany’s largest energy company said German consumers must prepare for a sharp rise in electricity and gas prices if the European Union cuts off Russian gas imports. This spring, wholesale gas prices in Germany were already 20 times higher than in the same period last year, and electricity prices were 8 times higher.
  • Germany: Inflation rose to its highest level in more than 40 years. Germany’s Federal Statistical Office announced that Germany’s inflation rate rose to 7.3% in March, up 2.2% from February and a new record in nearly 40 years.
  • Eurostat: Eurozone inflation hit a record high of 7.5% in March.
  • Cameroon: Solar power plants will be built in the northern region. The total installed capacity will be 120 MW.
  • South Africa: Temporary reduction in fuel taxes.
  • Lebanon: Declare central bank and government bankruptcy. On the 4th, the Deputy Prime Minister of Lebanon announced that the Lebanese Central Bank and the government had gone bankrupt. The losses from this bankruptcy will be shared by the central and local governments, as well as the Central Bank of Lebanon.
  • Global M&A deal value plummeted to $1.01 trillion. According to research firm Dealogic, the value of global M&A deals plunged 29% in the first quarter of 2022, with overall deal value falling to $1.01 trillion from $1.43 trillion in the first quarter of 2021. North America accounted for more than half of deal activity in the first quarter, but volumes were still down 28%.