Trade alert

  • Steel pallet racking: Australia’s anti-dumping measures are about to expire. On January 3, the Australian Anti-dumping Commission announced that the anti-dumping measures imposed on steel pallet racks imported from China and Malaysia will expire on May 8, 2024. Stakeholders can submit an application for renewal of anti-dumping measures for the products involved in the case at the latest on March 4, 2023. If no relevant application is received within the above-mentioned period, the current anti-dumping measures will be terminated after expiration. Since May 9, 2024 will no longer apply.

Trade

  • Croatia: Proposed reduction of VAT rates on firewood and solar panels. According to Croatian news agency, the Croatian government submitted a draft proposal in 2022 to reduce the value-added tax on wood chips, wood chips and firewood supply to 5%, and reduce the value-added tax rate on solar panels to zero. The effective date of the Act will end on March 31, 2023. According to estimates, reducing the value-added tax rate will reduce the government’s annual budget revenue by about 120 million kuna.
  • Mozambique: The Mozambique government will cancel the use of customs brokers in goods clearance by the end of 2023 to ensure that the tax authorities establish direct contact with importers, and the responsibility for the goods will be transferred to the importers, which will effectively reduce the problem of smuggling.
  • Bolivia: The Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Integration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Bolivia’s exports reach US$12.632 billion in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 29%, a record high. Among the exported commodities, more than 50% are manufactured industrial products. The export of non-traditional products (soybean products大豆制品, Brazil chestnut巴西粟, etc.) has increased significantly.The export performance of traditional products (natural gas, gold, zinc ore) remains strong
  • The total import and export volume between China and other RCEP members increased by 7.9% year-on-year. In the first November of 2022, the total import and export volume between China and other members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP区域全面经济伙伴关系协定) was 11.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.9%, accounting for 30.7% of China’s total foreign trade import and export. Among them, China’s exports to other members of RCEP reached 6.0 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.7%, exceeding the overall growth rate of national exports by 5.8 percentage points.
  • Brazil: A few days ago, the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade released data that in 2022 Brazil’s foreign trade will achieve a surplus of 62.3 billion US dollars, an increase of 1.5% over 2021, setting a record high. In 2022, Brazil’s foreign trade will total US$607.7 billion, an increase of 21.5% over 2021. Among them, the export value is 335 billion US dollars, an increase of 19.3% over 2021; the import value is 272.7 billion US dollars, an increase of 24.3% over 2021.
  • Port of India: According to the port data of Container News, the national container volume in India in December was 1.7 million TEUs, a month-on-month increase of 5.9%.
  • The Brazilian corn export corridor to China was officially opened. On January 7, a cargo ship sailing from Santos Port, Brazil, berthed at Machong Port, Guangdong Province. The 68,000 tons of Brazilian corn imported by COFCO Group(中粮集团) on board will be quickly delivered to domestic feed companies after inspection and quarantine. COFCO said that this is the first time that China has imported Brazilian corn in bulk.
  • Russian Deputy Prime Minister: Despite the difficulties caused by sanctions from Western countries, Russia’s food exports to friendly countries in 2022 still increased by 25% year-on-year, and food was exported to 150 countries.
  • On January 7, the Russian Vigon Consulting Company stated that the EU uses liquefied natural gas as a key tool to replace Russia’s pipeline natural gas supply. In 2022, European countries’ LNG imports increase by more than 60% in total, reaching 125 million tons. Among them, the United States has become the largest supplier of liquefied natural gas（液化天然气）, and its export volume to Europe has increased by nearly 2.5 times, from 21.4 million tons to more than 53 million tons.

Industry

  • Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute（主权财富基金研究所）: By the end of 2022, the total assets of the world’s sovereign wealth funds will reach US$10.30 trillion, an increase from US$10.12 trillion in September 2022. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund maintains sixth place in the list of the world’s top sovereign wealth funds with assets of $607.42 billion. China Investment Corporation topped the list with $1.350 trillion in assets, followed by the Norwegian Government Global Pension Fund and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority with asset values of $1.13 trillion and $790 billion, respectively.
  • TrendForce: Since most suppliers have started to cut production, the quarterly decline in NAND Flash prices will be reduced to 10%-15% in the first quarter of 2023, and price-cutting competition has also been brought under control after the original factory started to cut production. Among them, since NAND Flash Wafer is close to the cash cost, the decline will be the first product to be controlled; Enterprise SSD, as an important market for original manufacturers to consume inventory, has a large profit margin, and is the product with the deepest decline.

Industry-China

  • Dean of the China Tourism Academy: It is expected that the number of domestic tourists and tourism revenue in China will recover to 70% to 75% of the pre-epidemic level in 2023, and the number of inbound and outbound tourists is expected to recover to 30% to 40% of the pre-epidemic level.
  • Crane: In December 2022, the total financing of 100 typical real estate companies was 101.8 billion yuan, an increase of 84.7% month-on-month and 33.4% year-on-year. However, judging from the full-year data for 2022, the total annual financing of real estate companies was 824 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 38%, which was below 1 trillion yuan for the first time since 2016.

China

  • Medical Insurance Bureau: This year, a total of three new coronavirus treatment drugs, Azivudine Tablets(阿兹夫定片，made by china), Naimatevir Tablets/Ritonavir Tablets Combination Packaging (奈玛特韦片/利托那韦片组合包装,also called”Paxlovid”), and Qingfei Paidu Granules(Lung cleaner 清肺排毒颗粒), have passed the procedures of self-declaration of enterprises, formal review, and expert approval,etc, participated in the negotiations. Among them, Azivudine Tablets and Qingfei Paidu Granules( 清肺排毒颗粒) were successfully negotiated, but Paxlovid failed due to the high quotation of the manufacturer Pfizer Investment Co., Ltd.
  • CNR(央广网): On January 7 (the first day of the Spring Festival travel season春运第1天), a total of 34.736 million passengers were sent by railways, highways, waterways, and civil aviation across the country, an increase of 11.1% from the previous month, a decrease of 48.6% from the same period in 2019, and an increase of 38.9% from the same period in 2022. On January 8, the national railways are expected to send 6.1 million passengers and 8,449 passenger trains.
  • Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development: In 2022, the country planed to start new projects to renovate 51,000 old residential areas in cities and towns. From January to November 2022, 52,500 new urban and old residential areas were newly started nationwide, and the annual start task has been completed.
  • At the centralized signing ceremony of new energy smart operation and maintenance service cooperation among central enterprises of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission(国资委中央企业新能源智慧运维服务合作集中签约仪式), 13 central enterprises completed the signing of 22 projects, involving photovoltaic power generation(光伏发电) and wind power(风电), with a total capacity of 288 megawatts. Specialized integration with a wider scope and more projects. According to the industry, this cooperation marks the transformation of new energy integration of central enterprises from individual coordination to overall promotion, the transformation of new energy management from decentralized to lean, the transformation of new energy operations from single-handed advances to win-win cooperation, and the transformation of new energy development from scale Expansion to specialization and intensification.
  • Hangzhou Daily: On January 8, the Hangzhou-Taiwan High-speed Railway杭台高铁, China’s first privately-owned high-speed railway, ushered in the first anniversary of its opening and operation, and the second Spring Festival travel after its opening. The Hangzhou-Taiwan high-speed railway has a total length of 266.9 kilometers and a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour. Since its opening on January 8, 2022, the Hangzhou-Taiwan high-speed railway has operated nearly 5,500 pairs (11,000 trips) of high-speed trains in the past year, safely transporting more than 5 million passengers.
  • Sanya City三亚市, Hainan Province: From January 8, 2023, the free nucleic acid testing policy will no longer be extended. Citizens who need nucleic acid testing can go to the nucleic acid sampling point to test at their own expense, and the testing fee will be implemented in accordance with the relevant regulations on the nucleic acid testing fee for the new coronavirus in Sanya City.
  • CCTV News: The Hong Kong port will resume normal exchanges between the mainland and Hong Kong in stages and in an orderly manner starting from January 8. According to preliminary figures from the Immigration Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, as of 4:00 p.m. on January 8, more than 36,000 people entered and exited Hong Kong through land ports, including the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line落马洲支线, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge港珠澳大桥, Man Kam To and the Shenzhen Bay Port文锦渡及深圳湾口岸. In addition, the number of entry and exit at Hong Kong Airport is about 32,000, and the number of entry and exit by water exceeds 2,100.
  • TrendForce: Since most suppliers have started to cut production, the quarterly decline in NAND Flash prices will be reduced to 10%-15% in the first quarter of 2023, and price-cutting competition has also been brought under control after the original factory started to cut production. Among them, since NAND Flash Wafer is close to the cash cost, the decline will be the first product to be controlled; Enterprise SSD, as an important market for original manufacturers to consume inventory, has a large profit margin, and is the product with the deepest decline.

Company

  • DHL: Announced a 7.9% increase in shipping costs for the US market. This means that DHL’s annual price increase exceeds the average increase that UPS and FedEx are about to implement. In the first half of 2022, DHL’s international limited-time business volume decreased by 6% year-on-year, and the US business volume decreased by 14.6% year-on-year.
  • Mercedes-Benz: Sales in India are expected to post double-digit growth this year despite concerns that a weak rupee could lead to price hikes. Sales in India rose 41 percent last year to 15,822 units, a record high in India, and there is a backlog of around 6,000 units.
  • Amazon released a statement saying that small and medium-sized sellers (SMBs) sold nearly 5 billion items in the US alone, and third-party sellers accounted for nearly 60% of total sales. About 2 million third-party sellers worldwide sell through Amazon.
  • SHEIN ranks among the top three in the Spanish market in terms of total sales. When it comes to womenswear brick-and-mortar stores, Zara and Primark lead in sales, while SHEIN is the third-highest-selling brand in Spain and fifth in number of customers, according to a study by IESE Business School using data from financial consultancy Fintonic.
  • BMW: sales fall to 2.4 million in 2022, about 100,000 less than the previous year. However, the group’s pure electric vehicle sales more than doubled year-on-year, accounting for nearly 10% of total sales.
  • LG Electronics announced its results, and its profit plummeted 91.2% year-on-year. , South Korea’s LG Electronics released data that the operating profit in the fourth quarter was 65.5 billion won (about 51.6 million U.S. dollars), a decrease of 91.2% from the same period last year, which was about 80% lower than market expectations; It rose 5.2 percent to 21.85 trillion won.
  • Meihua Biology(梅花生物 ): It is estimated that the net profit in 2022 will be 4 billion to 4.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 70% to 91%. During the reporting period, the prices of main products such as monosodium glutamate味精, lysine赖氨酸, xanthan gum and other feed amino acid products rose黄原胶以及其他饲料氨基酸产品, and the overall profitability of main products further improved, thereby bringing about profit growth.
  • Shanghai Electric Power（上海电力）: Completed the 100% equity delivery of the Tokaj photovoltaic project in Hungary. The final transaction consideration totaled 33.05 million euros (approximately 245 million yuan). The project is located in the northeast of Hungary, and its assets include 5 project companies with a total installed capacity of about 200,000 kilowatts.
  • China Southern Airlines(中国南航) launched the Changsha-Hanoi route(长沙至河内航线) on January 8.

World

  • Thailand: In November 2022, the total number of cars rolled off the assembly line in Thailand was 190,155, an increase of 15% year-on-year, setting a new monthly high in the past 44 months; the stable supply of key automotive components also increased export-oriented production capacity by 19.12% . From January to November 2022, the total output of Quantai Automobile was 1,724,909 units, a year-on-year increase of 20.95%.
  • Vietnam: As of December 20, 2022, the total new registered capital, capital increase and capital contribution of foreign investors in Vietnam in 2022 will reach nearly 27.72 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 11%. Among the 108 countries and regions investing in Vietnam, Singapore topped the list,
  • South Korea ranked second, Japan ranked third, followed by mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
  • Israel: Announced an increase in the benchmark interest rate to 3.75%.
  • UK: The final value of the services PMI fell to 49.9 in December.
  • Vietnam: The real GDP growth rate reached 8.02% in 2022.