Trade alert

  • Iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel hot-rolled coils: The UK issued a double-reverse transitional review filing announcement. UK Trade Remedy recently issued an announcement to initiate a transitional review of anti-dumping and countervailing measures against iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel hot-rolled coils originating in China.

Trade

  • Malaysia: Foreign trade performance good. According to data released by the Malaysian Statistics Department on April 18, the country’s foreign trade import, export and total volume all hit record highs in March. Malaysia’s foreign trade has maintained a surplus for 23 consecutive months, and its exports have exceeded 100 billion ringgit for 7 consecutive months.
  • South Korea imported 429,000 tons of wheat and mixed wheat in March, with an import value of $172.45 million. The average import price per ton was 402 US dollars, an increase of 8.8% month-on-month, and exceeded 400 US dollars again after 13 years and 3 months after the 2008 financial crisis.
  • South Africa: The Port of Durban has resumed operations.
  • Indonesia’s import and export volume both hit a record high in March. According to the latest data from Indonesia’s National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s exports in March were US$26.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 44.36%; imports were US$21.97 billion, a year-on-year increase of 30.85%. Both hit record highs and posted trade surpluses for 23 consecutive months.
  • China’s ship exports in March fell 27.6% year-on-year. The latest data from the General Administration of Customs shows that China exported 262 ships in March, down 27.6% year-on-year; imported 245 ships, down 35.2% year-on-year. In the first quarter, a total of 890 ships were exported, a year-on-year decrease of 13.1%; a total of 636 ships were imported, a year-on-year increase of 10.4%.

Industry

  • European Automobile Manufacturers Association: In March, European new car registrations fell 19% year-on-year to 1.13 million vehicles, and car sales fell for the ninth consecutive month. The Russian-Ukrainian war has exacerbated shortages of components and chips, and the duration of the semiconductor supply bottleneck is expected to be further extended.
  • Canalys: Both the unfavorable economic situation and the typical seasonal weak demand led to a decline in total global smartphone shipments. In the first quarter, Samsung ranked first with a 24% share, Apple dropped to second with 18% market share, and Xiaomi ranked third with a 13% share. OPPO and vivo ranked fourth and fifth with a share of 10% and 8%.

China

  • Ministry of Finance: In the first quarter, the national general public budget revenue was 6,203.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.6%; the general public budget expenditure was 6,358.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.3%. The stamp duty on securities transactions was 106.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.3%.
  • At present, banks in more than 100 cities across the country have voluntarily lowered their mortgage interest rates.
  • On April 20, the 34th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress passed the “Futures and Derivatives Law of the People’s Republic of China”, which will come into force on August 1.
  • Energy Bureau: As of the end of March, the installed capacity of power generation nationwide was about 2.40 billion kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 7.8%. Among them, the installed capacity of wind power was about 340 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 17.4%; the installed capacity of solar power generation was about 320 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 22.9%. In the first quarter, the power projects of major power generation enterprises in the country completed an investment of 81.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.5%.

Company

  • Schaeffler, Germany’s fifth largest parts supplier, announced this week that it has signed a five-year rare earth supply agreement with Norway’s rare earth separation company REEtec, the first time a European auto supplier or carmaker has sourced rare earths from Europe. .
  • Huawei Yu Chengdong: Huawei’s consumer business has changed its name to “Huawei Terminal Business” and officially entered the commercial field in an all-round way. In the future, in addition to continuing to create consumer products for consumers, it will strategically invest in the commercial field for a long time to create a better and smarter commercial product experience for government and enterprise customers.
  • Apple: Used certified recycled gold in products for the first time and more than doubled the amount of recycled tungsten, rare earth elements and cobalt. In 2021, nearly 20% of all materials used in Apple products will be recycled, the most use of renewable materials ever. Apple also announced its latest recycling innovation technology Taz, which can improve the efficiency of material recycling.
  • Ideal Auto: In response to the problem that some supply chain companies located in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai areas were unable to supply products, the situation had a great impact on production in April, resulting in delays in the delivery of new cars for some users. Together with supply chain companies, we are actively restoring production capacity while meeting the requirements of epidemic prevention and control, and strive to control the delay in delivery to users within 3 weeks.
  • Amazon accounts for more than 50% of Australian e-commerce. The latest report released by Pattern shows that Amazon has become one of the most commonly used shopping platforms for Australian consumers, with more than 50 per cent of the local market share in the past year. And it predicts that by 2030, Amazon will account for 25 per cent of online sales in Australia and 5 per cent of total retail sales.
  • The Lazada Preferred Seller program will launch in May. Recently, Lazada Malaysia announced that it will launch the Preferred Seller program on May 1, 2022, which aims to recognize sellers who have performed well on the platform and provide more possibilities for their business development. Sellers who join this program can receive benefits such as traffic support.
  • Johnson & Johnson announced that its net profit fell sharply year-on-year. Johnson & Johnson announced that revenue in the first quarter of 2022 was US$23.426 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5%; net profit was US$5.149 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 16.9%. Sales in 2022 are expected to be $94.8 billion to $95.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.8% to 4.8%.

World

  • USA:Several states in the northeastern United States experienced heavy snowfall, with the thickness of snow reaching 38 cm in some areas. Affected by severe weather, nearly 300,000 customers in the northeastern United States lost power, including more than 195,000 in New York State and about 46,000 in Pennsylvania. Local officials said it could take days to fully restore power.
  • Australian coal giant Whitehaven: Major coal consuming countries including South Korea and Japan will gradually stop importing Russian coal, but the market cannot fill the gap caused by the cut in Russian exports in the short term, and coal prices may remain high for some time. The rally in coal prices should extend into next year.
  • Latvia: announced an energy crisis in the supply of petroleum products in the country, which will last until December 31. During this period, refined oil reserves can be sold on the market, and holders of refined oil reserves are obliged to prepare these products for state use. At present, Latvia’s oil product reserves can be maintained for 90 days, and the domestic fuel market is basically stable, but there are still risks.
  • Mexico: Strengthening control of lithium mines. Mexico’s Senate recently passed a mining bill confirming state control over lithium mining and requiring state-owned companies to take precedence over private investment in lithium mining.
    Iran: From March 2021 to March 2022, 453 small idle mines will resume mining, and the annual output of mines will increase by 22.5 million tons.
  • Japan: The yen fell to a new low, the Bank of Japan proposed unlimited bond purchases. On the 20th, the exchange rate of the yen against the US dollar in the Tokyo foreign exchange market once fell to about 129 yen per US dollar, hitting a new low since May 2002. The Bank of Japan then reaffirmed its firm commitment to ultra-easy monetary policy and will buy unlimited amounts of 10-year government bonds at a fixed rate of 0.25%.
  • French: The year-on-year increase in French CPI in March hit a new high in nearly 40 years. According to data released by the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Research, the French consumer price index (CPI) rose by 4.5% year-on-year in March and 1.4% month-on-month, the largest year-on-year increase since December 1985. Compared with the same period last year, energy prices in France rose 29.2% in March, while food prices rose 2.9%.