Trade alert

  • Walk-behind lawn mowers and their parts: U.S. launches anti-circumvention investigation into double anti-counterfeiting case.
    Recently, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that in response to the application submitted by the U.S. company MTD Products, Inc. and its parent company, Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. Anti-circumvention investigation to examine whether the products in question were assembled in the United States to circumvent anti-dumping and countervailing duties on walk-behind lawn mowers and their components.

Trade

  • Saudi state-owned mining company: Saudi Arabia, along with China, the United States, Russia and Morocco, has become a major exporter of phosphate fertilizers in the world, and plans to increase phosphate fertilizer production capacity by 50% to 9 million tons per year.
  • Recently, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council issued an announcement to decide that, starting from December 1, 2022, 10 most products originating in Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Lesotho, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia will be banned. 98% of tax items in underdeveloped countries are subject to zero tariffs.
  • German Federal Statistics Office: German exports in September 2022 fell by 0.5% month-on-month. Among them, the export value to EU countries was 73.4 billion euros and the import value was 64.3 billion euros, down 1.7% and 1.2% month-on-month respectively.
  • General Administration of Customs: In the first 10 months of this year, the export of mechanical and electrical products was 11.25 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.6%.

Industry

  • CINNO Research: In the third quarter, shipments of AMOLED smartphone panels in the global market were about 140 million units, down 4.8% year-on-year and up 9.1% month-on-month. Although driven by the peak season effect, the demand for AMOLED smartphone panels recovered month-on-month, but still remained unchanged year-on-year. Continuing the downward trend, the shipments of AMOLED smartphones in the global market all showed negative growth in the first three quarters. In terms of different regions, the share of South Korea accounted for 69.6%, and the share of domestic manufacturers’ shipments accounted for 30.4%, exceeding 30% for the first time.

Industry China

  • Lithium ore: On November 11, the average spot price of battery-grade lithium carbonate rose by 2,500 yuan/ton to 590,000 yuan/ton, continuing to hit a record high. Listed companies have deployed “lithium ore resources” one after another, and the layout of the layout has moved from domestic to overseas, costing several hundred million yuan or even tens of billions of yuan. On the supply side of lithium resources, leading enterprises represented by Tianqi Lithium(天齐锂业), Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Group (盐湖股份) and Ganfeng Lithium (赣锋锂业) continue to increase the self-sufficiency rate of resources and lock in low costs through their own supply guarantees. In the midstream, CATL (宁德时代), Sunwoda (欣旺达), Gotion Hi-Tech(国轩高科), EVE(亿纬锂能), etc. have extended their layout upstream. Among them, EVE (亿纬锂能) has deployed relevant salt lake projects through shareholding and cooperation; Gotion Hi-Tech(国轩高科) has deployed Yichun Lepidolite Project (宜春锂云母项目) and Argentina Salt Lake Project(宜春锂云母项目); CATL previously obtained a 65% controlling stake in Jiangxi Lepidolite Jianxiawo Mining Project(江西锂云母). Downstream new energy vehicle companies have also deployed lithium carbonate products. It is reported that BYD’s pilot test base in Salt Lake is progressing smoothly and has produced qualified lithium carbonate products.
  • Zhongtai Securities: Lithium has been listed as a key mineral resource by many countries. Mexico promotes the nationalization of lithium mines, and Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia in South America plan to establish a “lithium OPEC” organization. The lithium development cycle will be further extended, and the strategic value of lithium resources is expected to be revaluation. Maintain the industry “overweight” rating. New energy upstream raw materials, rare earth magnetic materials, lithium cobalt copper foil, aluminum foil, etc., the cost transmission pressure of the industrial chain has been further rationalized, and the terminal demand is strong. The upstream materials of lithium batteries continue the pattern of “high prosperity, high profit, and low valuation”.
  • Ctrip: The opening of the World Cup is imminent, and the domestic tourism market will also set off a round of “World Cup” fever. Airline bookings from China to Qatar have peaked since November since the outbreak. As of November 11, the number of air ticket bookings from China to Qatar with departure times from November 20 to December 18 increased by more than 28 times compared with the same period in 2021, and the average price of air ticket bookings fell by 37% year-on-year.
  • Meituan: Accommodation orders in major ski resorts continued to rise, with a month-on-month increase of more than 80% in the past week. Rooms at hot spots such as holidays are generally tight; among them, ski enthusiasts in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, and Beijing are the most active in booking.

Company

  • Sony Group: In 2024, a new semiconductor factory will be built in Thailand, mainly to manufacture semiconductors for assisting car driving, etc., and the pre-process of manufacturing circuits on major component wafers will be completed in Japan, and then processed in Thailand, where labor costs are low. The final product will be exported all over the world.
  • Foxconn announced results, with net profit up 4.8% year-on-year. Net profit increased to NT$38.76 billion from NT$36.98 billion in the same period last year. Revenue in the fiscal third quarter rose 24% to NT$1.747 trillion.
  • Disney: To cut costs, it is planning to start laying off workers, implement a targeted hiring freeze and limit corporate travel in an effort to bring Disney+’s streaming service to profitability.
  • Samsung: plans to significantly reduce next year’s smartphone shipments by 13%, which translates to about 30 million units, and locks in the mid-to-low-end models of the A-series and M-series, which were the main sales force. MediaTek, Largan, Shuanghong, Jingtech The supply chain may be under pressure.
  • Sony: In 2024, a new semiconductor factory will be built in Thailand, increasing the production scale in Thailand by 70%. The pre-process of manufacturing circuits on wafers of major components will be completed in Japan, and then processed into final products in Thailand, where labor costs are low. The semiconductor business company under the group will invest about 10 billion yen to build a new plant in the production base in central Thailand. Construction has started and will be put into operation in 2024.
  • Wish announced its third-quarter financial report, with revenue of $125 million, a year-on-year decrease of 66%, and a net loss of $124 million.
    The cargo transported by the China-Laos railway exceeded 10 million tons, breaking a record.
  • Hapag-Lloyd: Publishing results for the third quarter of 2022. The revenue was US$9.878 billion, a year-on-year increase of 33.6%; the net profit was about US$5.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 54.2%. In the first three quarters, revenue was US$28.439 billion, a year-on-year increase of 58.5%; net profit was US$14.665 billion, a year-on-year increase of 120.4%.
  • AliExpress, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group: Actively entered the Korean direct purchase market. This year, it invested 10 billion won to launch a 3-5 day delivery service and product price reduction services in South Korea. AliExpress is actively entering the Korean direct purchase market. According to big data analysis company TDI, as of September, the number of South Korean users of the AliExpress app reached 2.72 million, an increase of 22% from the beginning of the year.

China

  • National Energy Administration: In October, the electricity consumption of the whole society was 683.4 billion kWh, a year-on-year increase of 2.2%. The electricity consumption of the primary industry was 9 billion kWh, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%; the electricity consumption of the secondary industry was 472.6 billion kWh, a year-on-year increase of 3.0%; the electricity consumption of the tertiary industry was 110.2 billion kWh, a year-on-year decrease of 2.0%.
  • National Energy Administration: In the first three quarters, China’s newly installed renewable energy capacity was 90.36 million kilowatts, accounting for 78.8% of the country’s newly installed power generation capacity. Among them, hydropower added 15.9 million kilowatts, wind power added 19.24 million kilowatts, photovoltaic power generation added 52.6 million kilowatts, and biomass power generation added 2.62 million kilowatts. As of the end of September, China’s installed renewable energy power generation capacity reached 1.146 billion kilowatts. Among them, the installed capacity of hydropower is 406 million kilowatts, the installed capacity of wind power is 348 million kilowatts, the installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation is 358 million kilowatts, and the installed capacity of biomass power generation is 40.6 million kilowatts. The first batch of large-scale wind power photovoltaic bases have all started construction, the second batch of projects are being started one after another, and the third batch of projects is currently being reviewed.

World

  • Global carbon dioxide emissions will reach a record high this year, and if countries do not drastically reduce emissions, the remaining “carbon budget” will be exhausted within the next nine years, leading to global warming, according to the International Climate Science Agency’s “Global Carbon Budget”. Breaking 1.5°C triggers catastrophic climate impacts. Global carbon dioxide emissions are expected to increase by 1% to 37.5 billion tons in 2022, with the biggest increases being India and the United States.
  • Statistics Korea: South Korea’s processed food price index rose 9.5% year-on-year in October, a 13-year high. The recent frequent outbreaks of bird flu and swine fever have added fuel to the high prices. Among the 73 varieties, the prices of 70 varieties have risen to varying degrees compared with a year ago, and edible oil and flour are in the forefront.
  • South Korea: A special customs clearance policy will be implemented during the peak season for overseas direct purchases. This year, the Korea Customs Service will set up 6 teams to support customs in various places, work overtime at night and on weekends to handle import and export business, and achieve rapid customs clearance of overseas direct mail items.
  • Japan: According to the Japan Broadcasting Association’s news on November 14, taxi fares in Tokyo’s 23 wards and surrounding areas began to rise from that day. The upper limit of the starting price has been raised from 420 yen to 500 yen, and the upper limit of the travel distance plus freight rate has been raised from 80 yen per 233 meters to 100 yen per 255 meters. This is the first time that local taxi fares have been raised since 2007, except for the influence of the consumption tax hike.
  • Japan: The current account surplus in the first half of the fiscal year fell by 58.6% year-on-year.
  • Malaysia: GDP grew 14.2% year-on-year in the third quarter.
  • Germany released export data for September, and the value of exports fell by 0.5% month-on-month. Recently, the German Federal Statistics Office released data that in September 2022 German exports fell by 0.5% month-on-month. Among them, the export value to EU countries was 73.4 billion euros and the import value was 64.3 billion euros, down 1.7% and 1.2% month-on-month respectively.
  • Brazil: Crop production forecasts are raised again. Average crop yields are expected to increase by 12% to 4,075 kg per hectare on favorable weather expectations. In the 2022/23 season, soybean production is expected to reach a record 154 million tons, an increase of 22.3% from the previous season; corn production will decline to 126 million tons, but still up 12% from the 21/22 season; Wheat production will reach 9.5 million tons, up 23.7% from the previous season; cotton and rice crop forecasts are both lowered slightly to 2.9 million tons and 10.6 million tons, respectively.
  • Africa: It is expected to become the world’s largest graphite-producing area(石墨). Two African countries, Mozambique and Madagascar, are among the top five graphite producing countries in 2021, ranking third and fifth respectively. Among them, Madagascar is particularly rich in graphite resources, which has attracted many multinational companies to invest and develop, and is expected to become the world’s leading graphite producer in the future. In addition, African countries such as Tanzania also have considerable graphite resources and will become emerging graphite producers. The report predicts that Africa is expected to become the world’s largest graphite producing area by 2026, and its global output will increase from 15% in 2021 to 40%.