Trade alert

  • Polyamide film: South Korea extends the validity period of the temporary anti-dumping duty. On December 27, the Korean Ministry of Finance and Economics issued Announcement No. 2022-238, deciding to extend the validity period of the temporary anti-dumping duties on biaxially oriented polyamide films originating in China, Thailand and Indonesia from January 14, 2023 to 2023 March 13.
  • Illegal timber products: South Korea will implement joint inspections on imports from next year. According to recent news from the Korea Customs Service, in order to prevent the import of illegal and bad wood products, the Customs Service and the Forestry Department will conduct joint inspections on related wood products starting in 2023, focusing on charcoal for barbecue, machine-made charcoal, and wood pellets containing heavy metals. Products that are highly related to national health.

Trade

  • EU: Exports of hybrid and electric vehicles will increase by 69% to 42 billion euros in 2021. Among them, the export value of non-plug-in hybrid electric vehicles was 22.9 billion euros, the export value of pure electric vehicles was 12.3 billion euros, and the export value of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles was 6.8 billion euros. Imports rose 40 percent to 29 billion euros, led by 11.8 billion euros for non-plug-in hybrid vehicles.
  • Vietnam: The fiscal and tax revenue of the import and export was 420.192 trillion VND, exceeding the set target, an increase of 14.1% over the same period last year. It is estimated that Vietnam’s total import and export volume will reach US$750 billion in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 12.18%.
  • Austria: GDP grew by 1.7% year-on-year in the third quarter. A slight increase of 0.2% month-on-month and a 2.6% increase over the same period in 2019. The driving force for GDP growth came mainly from industry (excluding construction), with a growth rate of 2.2%.
  • Chattogram Bangladesh: In 2022, the container throughput of Chattogram may experience negative year-on-year growth. In 2021, the container throughput of ChattogramPort will be 3.21 million TEUs. From January to November 2022, the throughput will be 2.9 million TEUs. If December continues to maintain the same growth rate, the total annual throughput will be nearly 50,000 less than last year standard boxes.
  • The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade issued the “Guidelines for the Business Environment of Enterprises’ Overseas Investment Countries (Regions)（企业对外投资国别（地区）营商环境指南）” from 21 countries. Consists of 15 new guidelines covering Algeria, Angola, Panama, Timor-Leste, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Lebanon, Morocco, Moldova, Norway, Namibia, Senegal; 6 updated guidelines covering Countries Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico. It is understood that the series has been compiled and distributed since 2019, and currently covers a total of 108 countries and regions.

Industry China

  • IDC: It is expected that China’s PC display shipments will decline by 1.6% year-on-year in 2023, and will bottom out in 2024.
  • DIGITIMES Research: Global foldable mobile phone shipments are expected to double in 2022, and are expected to grow another nearly 30 million units in 2023. It is estimated that after the launch of Apple’s first folding screen mobile phone in the future, market growth and industry competition will become more intense. Global shipments of foldable smartphones rose more than 60% in the third quarter, thanks to high sales of Samsung Electronics’ foldable devices, according to Counterpoint Research. From July to September, global foldable smartphone shipments rose about 63% year-on-year to 6.08 million units.
  • CLS（财联社）: Recently, the prices of heat-clearing and detoxifying medicinal materials such as forsythia（连翘） and honeysuckle（金银花） have fallen sharply from the previous highs, and the pace of market shipments has slowed down significantly. Forsythia fell from the highest price of 280 yuan/kg to around 230 yuan/kg, and honeysuckle dropped from the highest price of 280-300 yuan/kg to 220-240 yuan/kg.
  • The first train from the SCO Qingdao (（Shanghai Cooperation Organization上合示范区青岛) to Slovenia started. Recently, the China Railway Express (Qilu齐鲁号) operated by Shandong Hi-Speed Group Co., Ltd. from the SCODA（中国—上海合作组织地方经贸合作示范区-青岛） to Koper, Slovenia, opened its first train, which expands the international logistics channel of the SCODA towards Europe. This China-Europe train has 82 TEUs, with a cargo value of about 12 million yuan. It is expected to arrive at the Slovenian port of Koper in about 30 days, and finally be distributed to Western European countries by railway.

China

  • Bureau of Statistics: From January to November, the total profit of industrial enterprises above designated size nationwide was 7,717.96 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.6%; the operating income was 123.96 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%. At the end of November, the asset-liability ratio of industrial enterprises above designated size was 56.9%, an increase of 0.2 percentage points year-on-year.
  • Bureau of Statistics: After final verification, in 2021, the current price of GDP will be 114,923.7 billion yuan, an increase of 556.7 billion yuan from the preliminary accounting figure; calculated at constant prices, an increase of 8.4% over the previous year, and an increase of 0.3 percentage points from the preliminary accounting figure.
  • National Radio and Television Administration,PRC(广电总局): Implement a licensing system for the distribution of domestic online dramas.
  • Shenzhen: From January to November, 2.798 million live broadcasts were delivered in Shenzhen, a year-on-year increase of 39.6%; online retail sales of goods participating in live broadcasts were 820 million pieces, forming an online retail sales of 152.23 billion yuan, ranking first in the province and rank third in the country(the top five are Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou).
  • National Immigration Administration: Optimizing immigration management policies and measures from January 8, 2023. Resume the acceptance and approval of ordinary passports for Chinese citizens traveling abroad or visiting friends in an orderly manner, and resume the processing of visas for mainland residents traveling to Hong Kong for travel and business.
  • The Supreme Law issued a document to strengthen the judicial protection of intellectual property rights in traditional Chinese medicine.

Company

  • TW Solar(通威太阳能): Announced the latest cell prices. The prices of 182mm and 210mm monocrystalline PERC cells are 1.07 yuan/W and 1.06 yuan/W respectively, which is a sharp drop from the previous quotation.
  • Toutiao: In 2023, on the basis of continuing to maintain high-quality traffic support, Toutiao will add 200 billion/year traffic to support high-quality original graphics and text genres, 300 billion attention traffic pools to support interest creation, and vigorously promote sharing and Business list, e-commerce, column and other diversified realization development.
  • China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited(CSSCL中国船舶集团): Recently, the 110,000 dwt liquefied natural gas (LNG) dual-fuel power product oil tanker built by its subsidiary Guangzhou Shipyard International Company Limited(广船国际有限公司) was recently completed and delivered. So far, the company has completed the annual delivery task 9 days ahead of schedule. Up to now, CSSCL has delivered a total of 209 ships this year, with a deadweight of more than 14.06 million tons.
  • Samsung: A few days ago, Samsung Electronics held an inauguration ceremony for its R&D center in Hanoi, Vietnam. The center started construction in March 2020, with a cost of 220 million US dollars, covering an area of 11,603 square meters, with a total area of 79,511 square meters, 3 floors underground and 16 floors above ground. It is expected that more than 2,200 researchers will be stationed here, focusing on research and development related to intelligent machines, network technologies, and software.
  • TheElec: SK Hynix has drastically reduced the team size in the latest round of organizational restructuring, and the overall number of teams has been reduced by 20% to 30%.
  • PDD Temu: Recently, data from market research company Sensor Tower shows that since its launch in September this year, Temu, a cross-border e-commerce platform under Pinduoduo, has been installed 10.8 million times in the U.S. market. During the 14th, it was the most downloaded app in all categories in the US market.
  • Lazada: Announcement to adjust the commission rate of platform merchants. For orders generated from January 1, 2023, the platform commission rate will be adjusted as follows: 1. For non-LazMall parts, the unified adjustment is 6%; 2. For merchants settled in LazMall, adjustment 7%.

World

  • South Korea: In the third quarter, foreign direct investment amounted to US$16.61 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 5%, the first time in six quarters that there was a decrease. Among them, real estate investment plummeted 44.9%, the largest drop.
  • St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank: As of November 2022, Americans’ personal savings will be $520 billion, a sharp drop of 89% from 2020. Savings are now even below pre-pandemic levels and have fallen by $100 billion since October.
  • German Federal Statistical Office: Due to the sharp rise in energy, fertilizer, feed and other costs, the number of pigs in Germany and the number of pig farms have declined sharply. As of November 3, the number of registered pigs in Germany was 21.3 million, a year-on-year decrease of more than 10%, and a decrease of nearly 20% compared with the same period in 2020, the lowest level in history.
  • United Nations: India’s population will surpass that of China by mid-April 2023, becoming the most populous country in the world. Since India’s independence in 1947, its population has grown by more than a billion people and is expected to continue growing for the next 40 years.
  • South Africa: 200th day of blackout in 2022. Electric utility Eskom Holdings said on Christmas Day it would cut 1,000 megawatts of power.
  • Kazakhstan: A new national plan to improve network quality is being developed. According to the plan, Kazakhstan’s household broadband access rate will reach 100% by 2027, and the national 5G network coverage rate will reach 75%. Musin pointed out that laying optical fiber on national and interstate roads is the next major task, on this basis, 4G broadband mobile Internet will be provided along the roads.