Trade alert

  • Pure Granular Magnesium颗粒状纯镁: The United States launched the fourth anti-dumping sunset review investigation. Recently, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued an announcement to launch the fourth anti-dumping sunset review investigation on granular pure magnesium imported from China. At the same time, the US International Trade Commission launched the fourth anti-dumping sunset review industry damage investigation on granular pure magnesium imported from China.

Trade

  • Ministry of Commerce of India: In the first 10 months of India’s current fiscal year, Russia was India’s fourth largest source of commodity imports, with a total import value of US$37.31 billion, a year-on-year increase of 384%. The increase was due to Western sanctions against seaborne Russian oil and oil products, while India bought large volumes of Russian crude at a discount during the period.
  • Brunei: According to Chinese customs statistics, the trade volume between China and Brunei reached US$3.08 billion in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 7.5%. Among them, China exported US$830 million to Brunei, a year-on-year increase of 30.4%; China imported US$2.25 billion from Brunei, an increase of 1% year-on-year.
  • Japan’s Ministry of Finance released data that Japan’s trade balance deficit reached 3.5 trillion yen in January, a record high for a single month’s trade deficit. It was the country’s 18th straight month of trade deficits. Japan’s imports in January were 10.05 trillion yen, a year-on-year increase of 17.8%.
  • Port of Long Beach: Container throughput in January 2023 was 574,000 TEU, an increase of 5% from December 2022 and a decrease of 28.4% from the same period last year. January last year was the busiest on record with a throughput of 801,000 TEU.

Industry

  • Jiemian News（界面新闻）: According to people familiar with the matter, the G7 and the EU are discussing the feasibility of effectively tracking Russian diamonds, which may pave the way for future restrictions on its trade. It is reported that the EU had planned to ban the import of diamonds from the Russian mining giant ALROSA in October last year, but it was opposed by the World Diamond Center in Antwerp, Belgium, and ultimately failed.
  • The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised its forecast for global oil demand growth in 2023 by 100,000 barrels per day, and it is expected that global oil demand will increase to 101.87 million barrels per day this year.

Industry China

  • The University of Hong Kong prohibits the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT in class, assignments and exams. Unless students obtain prior written consent, using ChatGPT will be considered plagiarism; if teachers suspect that students are using tools such as ChatGPT, they can ask students to take additional tests. Ho Lap-jen, vice-president of the University of Hong Kong, said that this move is a short-term measure, and will invite teachers and students to discuss extensively on the impact of AI tools on teaching.
  • Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the Passenger Car Association: The retail sales of passenger cars in January reached 1.29 million, a year-on-year decrease of 38% and a month-on-month decrease of 40%. Both the year-on-year growth rate and the month-on-month growth rate are the lowest in January since this century. According to the data, the auto market did not achieve a good start in January, which is a reasonable trend in line with expectations.
  • Hong Kong Airport Authority: In January, the passenger traffic of Hong Kong International Airport was about 2.1 million, a year-on-year increase of about 28 times, and the highest passenger traffic exceeded 80,000 in one day.
  • Financial Associated Press: The demand for steel has continued to improve in recent weeks, but due to the rain and snow this year, the availability of project personnel, and the speed of funding coordination, the overall demand is weaker than that of the same period last year.
  • Shanghai Securities News: Metal tin金属锡 is called “industrial monosodium glutamate”. It is not only an industrial raw material necessary for the production of various home appliances and electronic products, but also widely used in emerging industries such as photovoltaics and new energy vehicles. Since the end of last year, the price of tin has fluctuated and risen, and the main contract price of Shanghai tin has risen by more than 30% in the past three months.
    In 2022, the added value of China’s machinery industry will increase by 4% year-on-year.

China

  • Shanghai Securities News: As of February 16, a total of 67 projects of pumped storage power stations have been approved during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, with a total installed capacity of 92.191 million kilowatts and a total investment of approximately 611.6 billion yuan. Experts said that by 2030, the total scale of pumped storage will be about 120 million kilowatts, and by 2035, the total installed capacity of pumped storage in China will reach 300 million kilowatts, which is expected to drive an average annual direct investment of more than 60 billion yuan in the whole society.

Company

  • InsuranceDekho: Recently completed a US$150 million Series A equity bond financing, with Haitong International (India) acting as the exclusive financial advisor. The project is the largest ever Series A funding round in the Indian InsurTech industry. This round of investor lineup includes Goldman Sachs Asset Management, TVS Capital Funds, Investcorp, Avataar Ventures and LeapFrog Investments, etc.
  • SF Holdings顺丰: In January, the total revenue of express logistics business, supply chain and international business was 21.085 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 16.04%; single ticket revenue was 17.06 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.35%.
  • Twitter: will layoffs of advertising sales staff.
  • Amazon subsidiary Zappos: announces layoffs of 20%
  • TikTok claims that its monthly active users in Europe have exceeded 150 million. TikTok Information Technologies UK Ltd., a subsidiary of TikTok under ByteDance, which is responsible for operations in the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, shows that it has 125 million monthly active users in the EU, plus non-EU countries, it has more than 1.5 million monthly active users in Europe. billion monthly users.
  • Lockheed Martin Corporation and Raytheon Missiles and Defense Corporation: were included in the “Unreliable Entity List” by the Ministry of Commerce of China, and were prohibited from engaging in China-related import and export activities and making new investments in China.
  • Lantong Cloud: Cooperate with the Cambodian government to promote the development of Cambodian e-commerce. The two parties will rely on the “Lantong Cloud(澜通云)” e-commerce platform to carry out coordination and cooperation in cross-border e-commerce, electronic payment, digital services, agricultural product export and global supply chain services.
  • MSC and DB Schenker partner up for zero-carbon transport. Recently, the world’s largest liner company Mediterranean Shipping (MSC) and the world’s fifth largest sea freight forwarder DB Schenker（德铁信可） announced a large-scale biofuel purchase agreement (first-of-its-kind biofuel purchase agreement) ) to reduce CO2 emissions in the supply chain.
  • Coca-Cola’s net profit in 2022 fall by 2.3% year-on-year

World

  • U.S. Department of Commerce: Data released on February 15 showed that on a non-inflation-adjusted basis, U.S. retail sales rose 3% month-on-month in January.
  • Yonhap News Agency韩联社: With the expansion of the increase in alcohol tax imposed on alcoholic products, the price of raw and auxiliary materials and circulation costs continue to rise, the prices of soju (烧酒)and beer in South Korea may rise again this year. If liquor sellers raise ex-factory prices for two consecutive years, the price of soju may reach 6,000 won per bottle. The alcohol tax on beer has increased from 30.5 won per liter to 885.7 won in April this year, and the increase has been further expanded.
  • Russia: Restrictions on cash withdrawals in foreign currencies will continue after March 9.
  • UK: inflation rose 10.1% year-on-year in January.
  • Thailand: It is proposed to reduce the consumption tax on electric vehicle batteries from the current 8% to 1%, and at the same time provide subsidies of 24 billion baht to the electric vehicle battery production industry. The Minister of Energy of Thailand stated that the subsidy will be carried out on a first-come, first-served basis, and the subsidy amount will depend on the size of the batteries produced.
  • Kazakhstan: The economic growth rate in January 2023 will be 5.6%. Among them, the real economy increased by 2.3%, and the service industry increased by 7.6%. In January, fixed asset investment in Kazakhstan increased by 18.3%.
  • Maldives: The mutual visa exemption agreement with China has entered into force.
  • German Federal Statistical Office: In 2022, Germany’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 1.9% in real terms compared with the previous year.