Trade alert

  • Cold-drawn mechanical tube(冷拔机械管): The United States launched the first double-reverse sunset review investigation. On January 2, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued an announcement to launch the first anti-dumping sunset review investigation on cold-drawn mechanical tubes imported from China, Germany, India, Italy, South Korea and Switzerland, and to import cold-drawn mechanical tubes from China and India. Initiated the first anti-subsidy sunset review investigation, and launched the first anti-subsidy sunset review industrial damage investigation on the products involved in the above-mentioned countries. Stakeholders should register with the U.S. Department of Commerce to respond to the lawsuit within 10 days of the announcement, submit a reply to the U.S. International Trade Commission before February 2, 2023, and resolve the case no later than March 16, 2023. Sufficiency of Responses Submit comments to the ITC.

Trade

  • On January 4, Chinese Customs and Philippine Customs signed an AEO (Authorized Economic Operator经认证的经营者)mutual recognition arrangement. The export goods of AEO enterprises in China and the Philippines will enjoy 4 convenient measures, such as lower cargo inspection rate, priority inspection, designated customs liaison service, and priority customs clearance after international trade is interrupted and resumed. The customs clearance time of goods is expected to be significantly shortened. Insurance and logistics costs will also be reduced accordingly.
  • British railway workers went on strike again this week, and the British railway system will once again face a state of near paralysis. More than 40,000 workers participated in this round of strikes. Nearly four-fifths of the UK’s railway services were shut down, and railway services in most parts of Scotland and Wales were paralyzed.

Industry-China

  • IDC: In 2022, China’s AI public cloud service market will reach 7.46 billion yuan, accounting for 16.5% of the overall AI software market, showing an upward trend compared with 2021. The overall artificial intelligence market is affected by technological breakthroughs, and the pattern changes greatly, but the market pattern of AI public cloud service providers is relatively stable, with Baidu Smart Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, and Tencent Cloud ranking the top four. From the perspective of growth rate, conversational AI and NLP are the two fastest-growing sub-fields of the AI public cloud market.
  • Silicon Industry Branch: The price of silicon wafers continued to fall this week. The price range of M6 monocrystalline silicon wafers (166mm/155μm) was 3.2-3.55 yuan/piece, and the average transaction price dropped to 3.5 yuan/piece, a week-on-week decrease of 20.5%; the price range of M10 monocrystalline silicon wafers (182mm/150μm) was between 3.6-3.8 yuan/piece, the average transaction price dropped to 3.74 yuan/piece, a week-on-week decrease of 17.4%; the price range of G12 monocrystalline silicon wafers (210mm/150μm) was 4.75-5 yuan/piece, and the average transaction price dropped to 4.9 yuan / piece, a week-on-week decrease of 25.3%. Silicon wafer leaders LONGi Green Energy and TCL Zhonghuan both updated their silicon wafer prices in late December last year, with an overall drop of 27% and 23% respectively.
  • Ctrip: As of January 5, overseas travel orders for the 7-day Spring Festival in the Year of the Rabbit(兔年春节) surged by 540% compared with last year’s Spring Festival; the average order cost increased by 32% year-on-year. The top ten outbound travel destinations are: Australia, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the United States, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Macau and Indonesia. Among them, orders for the Spring Festival in Melbourne, Australia increased by more than 50 times year-on-year, and Bangkok, Thailand increased by more than 10 times.
  • Surging News: The situation of ibuprofen and acetaminophen “difficult to find a drug” is being eased.

China

  • The fuel fee for air tickets will be officially lowered on January 5. After the adjustment, each adult passenger will be charged a fuel surcharge of 80 yuan for segments above 800 kilometers, and a fuel surcharge of 40 yuan per adult for segments of 800 kilometers and below. Respectively down 40 yuan and 20 yuan. From early morning to 1:00 on the first day of the reduction, the search volume of air tickets on the same journey travel platform increased by 5 times compared with the previous day, and the number of air ticket bookings doubled. The popularity of air tickets was the highest in the three days before New Year’s Eve（除夕夜）.
  • National Bureau of Statistics: In December, China’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was 47.0%, a decrease of 1.0 percentage points from the previous month. In December, the epidemic had a great impact on the production and demand of enterprises, the arrival of personnel, and logistics and distribution.
  • Wuhan Hubei province: The expected goal in 2023 is to increase the regional GDP by more than 6.5%, create more than 220,000 urban jobs, increase consumer prices by about 3%, and basically synchronize the growth of residents’ income with economic growth. In 2022, the GDP is expected to grow by about 4.5%, reaching a total of about 1.9 trillion yuan.
  • Passenger Federation: It is estimated that the wholesale sales of new energy passenger car manufacturers in December 2022 will be 730,000 units, an increase of about 0.4% month-on-month and about 45% year-on-year. For the whole year, it is estimated that the wholesale of new energy vehicles will be 6.49 million, a year-on-year increase of 96%. According to the proportion of the normal structure, it is predicted that the sales volume of new energy passenger vehicles nationwide in December will be 730,000, which is expected to hit a record high in the sales volume of passenger vehicle manufacturers.
  • Ministry of Finance website: Announces the economic operation of state-owned and state-holding enterprises (state-owned enterprises) across the country from January to November 2022. The data shows that from January to November 2022, the total operating income of state-owned enterprises was 73001.05 billion yuan, an increase of 8.5% year-on-year; the total profit was 3859.59 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.4%; taxes and fees payable were 5339.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.0%.
  • International Business Daily: On January 3, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization(SCO上海合作组织地) Cross-border RMB Service Center was unveiled at the Enterprise Service Center of the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Comprehensive Service Platform, and completed the first RMB cross-border settlement.
  • Ningbo Maritime Safety Administration(宁波海事局): As of December 31, 2022, the container throughput of the Chuanshan Port Area of Ningbo Zhoushan Port (宁波舟山港穿山港区 ) exceeded 10.88 million TEUs. Against the backdrop of a complex and severe global economic environment, it still maintained a year-on-year growth of 0.93%. So far, the Chuanshan Port Area of Ningbo Zhoushan Port has had a container throughput of over 10 million TEUs for six consecutive years.

Company

  • General Motors: U.S. sales rise 2.5% to 2.74 million vehicles in 2022, as it recovers from factory shutdowns caused by parts shortages earlier this year. It also surpassed Toyota’s sales by about 165,630 units, and became the champion of US car sales again.
  • Hyundai Motor: Sales in December 2022 was 72,058, a year-on-year increase of 40%, which is a record high for the same period in history; sales in the fourth quarter of 2022 will be 195,967, a year-on-year increase of 29%; annual sales in 2022 will be 724,265, a slight decrease of 2% year-on-year %.
  • Tesla: In 2022, the Shanghai Gigafactory will deliver over 710,000 vehicles throughout the year, a year-on-year increase of 48%; Model Y alone has delivered over 450,000 vehicles, almost tying Tesla China’s 480,000 vehicles in 2021 delivery results.
  • Amazon: Plans to cut 18,000 jobs, with multiple teams affected, including e-commerce and human resources, experience and technology (PXT) and other related departments.
  • Walmart: It has launched drone delivery services in Arizona, Florida, and Texas, with the goal of building a drone delivery capacity of 1 million pieces per year. Data show that its drone delivery service has covered 6 states and 4 million households. The other three states are Arkansas, Utah and Virginia.
  • Target: Edward Kelly named Target one of the “big five” retailers at risk. Currently, the headwinds and challenges facing Target include the possibility of continued weakness in general merchandise, negative traffic growth in the fourth quarter, the timing of profit margin recovery, and the return of epidemic problems.
  • Geodis, a large French freight forwarding and logistics company: announced plans to acquire trans-o-flex. Trans-o-flex is Germany’s leading company in the high-end express delivery sector, specializing in the temperature-controlled transport of pharmaceutical products as well as the just-in-time delivery of products for the cosmetic and high-tech industries.
  • BlackRock: Has suspended withdrawal requests from investors in £3.5bn UK property fund.
  • Apple: On January 3, the stock price of Apple in the United States fell by more than 3%, closing at US$125.07 per share, and the total market value fell below US$2 trillion.
  • Sunac China融创中国: In 2022, the group will achieve a cumulative contracted sales amount of approximately 169.33 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 71.65%; the cumulative contracted sales area will be approximately 12.847 million square meters. Among them, in December 2022, the group will realize a contracted sales amount of about 8.23 billion yuan, and a contracted sales area of about 664,000 square meters.
  • Haitian Flavor Industry海天味业: Released the financial report for the third quarter of 2022, which can be called the worst report card in history. The financial report shows that in the third quarter of 2022, Haitian Flavor Industry’s revenue was approximately 5.562 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.77%, and its net profit was approximately 1.274 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.99%. Both revenue and net profit declined.

World

  • German think tank德国智库: the global inflation rate will gradually decline. Among them, the inflation rate will reach 7.1% this year, 5.8% next year, and only 4.5% in 2026.
  • Germany: According to data released by the German Federal Statistical Office, the country’s inflation rate in December 2022 was 8.6%, compared with the previous value (November data) of 10%. On a month-on-month basis, the consumer price index (CPI), which measures inflation, fell 0.8% in December. In 2022, the country’s annual inflation rate reached 7.9%.
  • United States: The number of ADP employment increased by 235,000 in December, which is estimated to increase by 150,000, and the previous value increased by 127,000.
  • Belgium: The annual inflation rate in 2022 will be 9.25%, which is a new high since 1976. It is mainly due to the increase in energy prices and food prices caused by the energy crisis. In December 2022, the inflation rate is still running at a high level, reaching 10.35%.
  • Thailand: The CPI rose by 5.89% year-on-year in December, and the core CPI index rose by 3.23% year-on-year, expected to be 3.28%. In 2022, the overall CPI will rise by 6.08%, a 24-year high.
  • Singapore: According to data released by the Singapore Institute of Purchasing and Materials Management, the country’s manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) in December 2022 was 49.7, a decrease of 0.1 point from 49.8 in November, indicating that the country’s manufacturing industry has been in the fourth consecutive month. Atrophic state, and the atrophy range slightly expanded.
  • The Bank of Korea: Released the “Economic Outlook Update Report经济展望更新报告”, lowering South Korea’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast in 2023 from 2.1% to 1.7%, down 0.4 percentage points.
  • Bangladesh: Business Standard reported that Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data showed recent increases in production costs for industries such as grain processing, steel, dairy, sugar, animal feed, transport equipment, motorcycles, food, basic metals and wooden furniture The price of machinery and equipment in related industries has increased by 13% – 17%. The main reason for the increase in the cost of Bangladesh’s industry is the rise in global material prices and the interruption of production due to insufficient domestic power supply.
  • Brazil: In November 2022, Brazil received US$8.3 billion in foreign direct investment, a year-on-year increase of 65%; the accumulated foreign direct investment amounted to US$82.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 59%, indicating that Brazil’s attractiveness to foreign capital has rebounded.
  • South Africa: World Wide Worx and Mastercard research shows that online retail sales in South Africa will increase by 35% to R55 billion in 2022. Total retail sales in South Africa are expected to reach R1.16 trillion in 2022, with online retail sales accounting for 4.7% of total retail sales.
  • DUBAI: Dubai recently laid out a 32 trillion dirham ($8.7 trillion) economic plan that includes doubling foreign trade and investment over the next decade. As part of the plan, the country is looking to develop its manufacturing and logistics sectors, with government spending set to rise to Dh700 billion from Dh512 billion a decade ago.