Trade alert

  • South Africa: The export of cloven-hoofed animals and related products to China is suspended. Recently, foot-and-mouth disease occurred in a farm in the Northwest Province of South Africa. In view of this, the General Administration of Customs of China issued an announcement stating that, with immediate effect, the direct or indirect import of cloven-hoofed animals and related products from South Africa is prohibited.
  • Truck tires: The Eurasian Economic Union initiated an anti-dumping midterm review investigation. Recently, the Eurasian Economic Commission issued an announcement to initiate an anti-dumping mid-term review investigation on truck tires originating in China to examine whether the current anti-dumping duties need to be adjusted.
  • Lysine: Indonesia imposes anti-dumping duties. Recently, the Indonesian Ministry of Finance issued an announcement to make a final anti-dumping ruling on lysine for animal feed originating in China, and decided to impose an anti-dumping duty of 6.02% to 33.20%, which is valid for five years.

Trade

  • Thailand:  Recently, Thai fruits were sent to China via the China-Laos Railway for the first time. The Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd., which is responsible for the operation of the Laos section of the China-Laos Railway, expects that more Thai agricultural products will be shipped to China and even Europe via the China-Laos Railway.
  • Brazil’s foreign trade surplus hit a record high of US$7.38 billion in March. In March this year, Brazil’s foreign trade achieved a surplus of US$7.38 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19.3%, setting a record for the same period since 1989. Among them, the export value was 29.09 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 25%; the import value was 21.71 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 27.1%.
  • Vietnam reported a 5% year-on-year economic growth in the first quarter. Recently, data released by the Vietnam Statistics Bureau showed that Vietnam’s GDP in the first quarter increased by 5.03% year-on-year, which was lower than expected when the risk of the epidemic gradually subsided. Meanwhile, the gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by 6%-6.5% in 2022.

Industry

  • China Tourism Academy: In the first quarter, it is estimated that 973 million domestic tourism trips and 640 billion yuan of domestic tourism revenue are expected, down 5% and 13% year-on-year respectively, and recover to 80% and 47% of the same period in 2019 on a comparable basis.
  • Clarksons: Global newbuilding orders stood at 3.23 million revised gross tons (CGT) in March. Among them, South Korea undertook 1.64 million revised gross tons, accounting for 51%. In the first quarter, the global new ship order volume was 9.2 million revised gross tons, and South Korea undertook 4.57 million revised gross tons, accounting for 50%.
  • In March, global semiconductor lead times increased by 2 days to 26.6 days. But delivery times are slowing down significantly less than in 2021. Lead times have increased for most chip types, including power management, microcontrollers, analog chips, and memory chips.
  • Since March, nearly 20 new energy car companies have announced price increases, involving nearly 40 models, and the overall price increase of most car companies has been controlled within 10,000 yuan. Chen Shihua of the China Automobile Association said that from the perspective of demand, the price increase of lithium batteries may continue for a period of time; to make the price of power batteries return to rationality, the goals of ensuring supply and stable prices and maintaining a stable chain will definitely be achieved.
  • European Patent Office: The European Patent Office released data on April 5. It will receive 16,665 patent applications from China in 2021, setting a new record for the number of Chinese patent applications in the office, a year-on-year increase of 24%. Among the 30 major patent application countries The highest increase.
  • The American fortune magazine “Forbes” recently released the 2022 list of the world’s billionaires. Elon Musk, the founder of the US space exploration technology company and Tesla CEO, has become the world’s richest man with a net worth of $219 billion. Jeff Bezos is in second place with $171 billion.

China

  • In March, Caixin China’s service industry PMI recorded 42.0, a sharp drop of 8.2 percentage points from the previous month, the lowest since March 2020.
  • Hurun Research Institute: The total wealth of the world’s top 100 real estate entrepreneurs is 4.2 trillion yuan. China ranks first with 52, followed by the United States with 17. Among them, the average wealth of Chinese real estate entrepreneurs has shrunk by 3%, and the average wealth of American real estate entrepreneurs has increased by 10%. The 94-year-old Li Ka-shing, the richest man in Hong Kong, has become the richest man in real estate in the world with a fortune of 205 billion yuan.
  • Guosen Securities: The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has little impact on domestic food supply and food security. The total domestic corn imports account for less than 10% of the consumption, and the stocks of alternative oils and fats related to sunflower oil are sufficient. Domestic wheat and rice do not have the basic national conditions of relying on imports. In addition, from the perspective of major climate change, the 400 mm precipitation line has moved nearly 100 kilometers to the northwest, and this trend is still ongoing. In the future, the domestic arable land area will be further increased.

Company

  • CATL: The German factory obtained the battery cell production license.
  • TikTok was selected as the most influential company in the world.
  • Shein raised $1 billion at a $100 billion valuation.
  • South Korean shipping companies ranked first in the world in terms of orders received in the first quarter.
  • Mofa Technology (a leader in the construction of Metaverse infrastructure): Announced the continuous completion of Series B and Series C financing, with a total amount of 130 million US dollars. Among them, the B round financing was jointly invested by Qingxin Capital and Jinsha Capital, and Sequoia China and Wuyuan Capital invested in three consecutive rounds; the C round financing of 110 million US dollars was jointly led by SoftBank Vision Fund Phase 2 and a well-known strategic investment institution.
  • Affected by factors such as the continuous sharp rise in the prices of raw materials such as batteries and chips and the decline of national subsidies, two more new energy vehicles announced price adjustments. The price of some models of Chery New Energy will be increased by 2,900-5,000 yuan, which will take effect from 0:00 on April 7; Jihu Automobile will make certain price adjustments for all models, and the specific plan will be announced before April 30.
  • Volkswagen: Will drop dozens of combustion engine models by 2030 and reduce overall car sales. To focus on producing more profitable Audi, Porsche and other high-end cars. Will reduce its lineup of petrol and diesel cars in Europe by 60% over the next eight years.
  • Vanke: In March, the contracted sales area was 2.369 million square meters, and the contracted sales amount was 41.53 billion yuan. In the first quarter, the accumulated contracted sales area was 6.327 million square meters, and the contracted sales amount was 106.5 billion yuan.
  • Sunac China: In March, the contracted sales area was about 1.535 million square meters, and the contracted sales amount was about 22.08 billion yuan. In the first quarter, the cumulative contracted sales area was about 5.332 million square meters, and the contracted sales amount was about 72.36 billion yuan.
  • 58, Anjuke: In March, the average online price of new houses in the 65 cities monitored by the country was ￥17,547 /㎡, a slight decrease of 0.08% from the previous month. The average listing price of second-hand houses was ￥16,921/㎡, down 0.22% from the previous month. The number of newly listed second-hand housing listings in most cities has rebounded significantly, and the overall number of newly listed listings in key cities across the country has risen by 64.0% month-on-month.

World

  • India: The ‘unicorn club’ is rapidly expanding. According to a recent report by the US “Fortune” magazine, India has recently welcomed its 13th unicorn company this year (a start-up company with a valuation of over US$1 billion), which is one of the fastest periods for the birth of unicorn companies in India. According to the report, these enterprises are located in the fields of fintech, food, blockchain and so on.
  • IIF: Investment outflows from emerging market countries totaled $9.8 billion in March.

Coronavirus & Travel

  • Indonesia will continue to relax entry prevention and control requirements. The Ministry of Economic Coordination of Indonesia announced on April 5 that, except for those whose body temperature is higher than 37.5℃, those entering the country will no longer need to undergo nucleic acid testing for new coronary pneumonia.
  • Brazil relaxes entry and epidemic prevention policies. The Brazilian government recently announced that passengers entering Brazil can provide electronic and paper versions of the full-course COVID-19 vaccination certificate. The date of completion of the vaccination must be more than 14 days away from departure. There is no need to provide a negative nucleic acid test certificate and a health declaration, and the requirement for entry quarantine has been lifted.