Trade alert

  • Coatings: Madagascar makes preliminary ruling on safeguards. On December 7, the WTO Committee on Safeguards released the notification of safeguard measures submitted to it by the Madagascar delegation on December 6, 2022. Madagascar’s investigative agency made affirmative preliminary ruling on safeguard measures for imported paints, and proposed to levy 17% temporary safeguard measures tax on water-based paints, and 35% temporary safeguard measures tax on oil-based paints, valid for 200 days, and measures implemented by higher authorities The tax announcement shall prevail.

Industry

  • TheElec: Due to the current increase in semiconductor wafer factories, the demand for thin-film materials required by semiconductors in the lithography process has increased, and some semiconductor manufacturers are committed to developing more advanced semiconductor materials to further increase demand. Many existing thin-film production businesses are developing thin-film materials for advanced technology, and related semiconductor thin-film materials are already in short supply and prices are rising.
  • Lithium-ion battery prices in the UK rose this year for the first time in more than a decade. Soaring prices for battery metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, combined with higher component costs, have pushed battery pack prices up 7% from a year ago.
  • UBI Research: Shipments of medium and large-sized OLED panels will increase from 26.1 million this year to 69.5 million in 2027. Among them, OLED shipments for TVs will reach 14.8 million units in 2027, with an average annual growth rate of 11.2%, and sales will reach US$9.18 billion, accounting for 62.8% of the total sales of the medium and large-sized OLED market.

Industry-China

  • Lighthouse （灯塔专业版）: As of 20:30 on December 11, the total pre-sale box office of “Avatar 2” was 112 million yuan, making it the fastest movie in 2022 to break the 100 million pre-sale box office.
  • CITIC Construction Investment: In terms of lithium batteries, negative electrode coating agents, carbon nanotubes and LiFSI have been applied in batches, and the penetration rate continues to increase; 4680 batteries, lithium iron manganese phosphate and silicon-based negative electrodes have been applied in small batches in 2022, and are expected to enter the market in 2023 In the period of steep rise in penetration rate, sodium batteries, composite copper foil and Kirin batteries will enter the first year of industrialization in 2023, and the technical direction is highly certain.

China

  • From January to November, the national railways completed 1.91 billion tons of coal transportation, an increase of 143 million tons or 8.1% year-on-year, of which 1.35 billion tons of coal were transported, a year-on-year increase of 160 million tons or 13.2%, both hitting the best level in history . As of the end of November, 363 railway direct power plants across the country had stored 75 million tons of coal, an increase of 9.2% year-on-year, and the average usable days were 29.4 days, an increase of 3.8 days year-on-year, maintaining a relatively high level.
  • The profit of the automobile manufacturing industry turned from a decline to an increase. According to data recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first 10 months, the operating income of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 7.6% year-on-year. The growth rate of corporate revenue slowed down compared with the previous nine months, and the profits of industrial companies fell by 3.0% year-on-year.
  • November CPI and PPI data released. The National Bureau of Statistics announced on December 9 the national consumer price index (CPI) and industrial producer price index (PPI) data for November 2022. In November, the national consumer price rose by 1.6% year-on-year and decreased by 0.2% month-on-month. In November, the ex-factory price of industrial producers nationwide decreased by 1.3% year-on-year, and rose by 0.1% month-on-month; the purchase price of industrial producers decreased by 0.6% year-on-year, and remained the same month-on-month.
  • As of the end of October, the national inclusive small and micro enterprise loan balance was 22.9 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.8%, 13.1 percentage points higher than the growth rate of various loans.
  • The digital logistics market has grown to 128.05 billion yuan. The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing recently released the “2022 China Digital Logistics Development Report”. The report line shows that the overall market size of digital logistics in 2020 is 35.67 billion yuan, and it will grow to 128.05 billion yuan by October 2022, with an average annual compound growth rate of more than 70%. As of October this year, there are more than 16,000 companies whose business scope involves digital logistics.
  • The Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government: The three-runway system project of the Hong Kong International Airport will be completed in 2024. After the expansion, the capacity of the Hong Kong Airport will gradually increase. 10,000 metric tons of goods, and create a large number of employment opportunities and social and economic benefits for Hong Kong.

Company

  • Apple: The entry-level capacity model of the iPhone 15 Ultra could cost as much as $1,299. That’s a $200 jump compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max. The cheapest model will have at least 256GB of storage. The Ultra will also feature a dual-lens front-facing camera, a first for an iPhone. The bottom USB-C port will support Thunderbolt 4 transfer speeds.
  • Alibaba announced a $342.5 million injection into Lazada, adding to $378.25 million in May and $912.5 million in August. Since the beginning of this year, Alibaba has invested more than US$1.6 billion in Lazada.
  • SHEIN launches a membership system, which raises the original discount threshold. Recently, the domestic cross-border fast fashion e-commerce company SHEIN began to test the membership system in the United States and launched the “SHEIN CLUB”. Users only need to pay US$6.99 per quarter to enjoy exclusive 5% discounts and other discounts on more than 100,000 products. The system will gradually be extended to other markets around the world.
  • China Merchants Shipping announced the expansion of LNG ship orders. A few days ago, China Merchants Steamship announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, DSIC and CSSC signed a “Ship Order Agreement” for two 175,000 cubic meters of LNG transport ships, with a total shipbuilding cost of 470 million US dollars. According to industry insiders, the LNG shipping market maintains a high boom market.
  • TSMC’s sales in November reached approximately US$7.3 billion, a 50% increase.

World

  • The UAE’s “Rashid” lunar rover was successfully launched into space and will start a five-month mission to the moon. Designed to learn more about lunar dust, lunar soil, and airless objects. The UAE lunar exploration mission is an important part of its “2117 Mars Strategy”.
  • The European Union: It plans to implement import and export bans on commodities related to deforestation, including coffee, cocoa, soybeans, palm oil, beef, timber, furniture, etc. If these goods and their supply chains are related to actions such as deforestation, they will be banned from being imported into EU countries for sale, and they will not be allowed to export from the EU.
  • South Korea: Published the support strategy for carbon composite materials. The South Korean government plans to invest a total of 185 billion won by 2030 to achieve high-performance carbon composite material technology autonomy and “half-price carbon fiber半价碳纤维”; it plans to promote three major demonstration projects in the aerospace field with a scale of 100 billion won to cultivate carbon composite materials into “Second Iron and Steel Industry”; plans to provide financial and certification support to domestic companies that will invest 2.1 trillion won in carbon composite material production facilities by 2030.
  • EU: Officially approves Croatia’s accession to the Schengen area, and Croatia’s Schengen status will take effect from January 1, 2023.
  • Japan: It is planned to list koi （锦鲤）as a key export commodity. The Japanese government has previously listed about 30 commodities such as beef, rice, and fruits as “key export commodities.”
  • South Africa: Cement industry plans to seek general tariff protection. The Cement and Concrete Association of South Africa (CCSA) is preparing an application for general tariff protection on imported cement.
  • Transshipment volumes at Qatar ports rose 1% in November. A few days ago, Qatar’s maritime department released data that the transshipment volume of the country’s ports increased by 1% in November 2022, and the ports of Hamad, Doha and Ruwais handled about 116,000 TEUs and more than 142,000 tons of general cargo .