World

  • The United Nations World Tourism Organization released data on the 28th, showing that the global tourism industry lost 1.3 trillion in revenue last year.

China

  • Ministry of Commerce: In 2020, China’s foreign direct investment was US$132.94 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%; 301,000 laborers of various types were dispatched for foreign labor service cooperation, and 623,000 laborers of various types were abroad at the end of December.
  • Non-financial direct investment in 58 countries along the “Belt and Road” was US$17.79 billion, a year-on-year increase of 18.3%, accounting for 16.2% of the total in the same period, an increase of 2.6 percentage points from the previous year. In addition, foreign non-financial direct investment by local enterprises was US$80.75 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16.4%, accounting for 73.3% of total foreign direct investment in the same period; outbound investment in the eastern region increased by 21.8% year-on-year, with Guangdong, Shanghai, and Zhejiang ranking the top three.
  • SAFE: In December 2020, China’s international trade in goods and services revenues in terms of balance of payments accounted for 1,913 billion yuan, expenditures 1,520.1 billion yuan, and a surplus of 392.9 billion yuan. Among them, the income from trade in goods was 1,179.7 billion yuan, the expenditure was 1,269.9 billion yuan, and the surplus was 449.8 billion yuan; the income from service trade was 193.3 billion yuan, the expenditure was 250.1 billion yuan, and the deficit was 56.9 billion yuan.
  • Ministry of Commerce: Facing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the import and export of cross-border e-commerce in 2020 will increase by 31.1%, and the total market procurement trade will exceed 100 billion US dollars. More than 10,000 traditional companies have touched the Internet, and the number of cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses has exceeded 1,800. Last year, the growth rate reached 80% and the area exceeded 12 million square meters.
  • In 2020, the total retail sales of consumer goods in Shanghai will be 1.59 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.5%, and the growth rate will be 4.4 percentage points higher than that of the whole country. Shanghai will strive to implement the new policy for duty-free stores in the city in 2021, add 50 designated departure tax rebate stores, cultivate and expand 20 local brands, introduce 30 international mid-to-high-end brands, and strive to add 800 first stores to build a global market New product launch location.
  • Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail: The estimated net profit for 2020 is 3.071 billion-3.394 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 69.27%-76.56%.

Industry& Company

  • As of 2019, the annual use of plastic bags in China has exceeded 4 million tons, which is approximately 3 billion plastic bags used every day; the annual consumption of express and takeaway plastic packaging is more than 1.8 million tons and more than 500,000 tons, respectively. The implementation of the plastic restriction order has also directly led to a substantial increase in orders for midstream degradable products companies.
  • Currently, the main degradable materials used in the market are polybutylene adipate terephthalate, which is commonly known as PBAT and polylactic acid PLA. China’s plastics industry produces about 130 million tons a year, but the current production capacity of biodegradable plastics is only more than 1 million tons. Shopping bags, agricultural films and take-out packaging bags that are under the strictest control under the “plastic restriction order” have a domestic consumption of over 900 10,000 tons, the market potential is huge.
  • At present, the price of one ton of PBAT is around 26,000 yuan, an increase of 13% in just one month. The price of PLA has risen from 20,000 yuan a ton at the end of 2019 to the current 40,000 yuan a ton. As of January 28, 2021, PBAT’s domestic production capacity under construction and planned exceeds 4 million tons, and PLA’s under construction and planned production capacity exceeds 1.97 million tons.
  • In January 2021, the prices of softwood pulp and hardwood pulp rose sharply, and the increase has exceeded the previous high. The implementation of the “plastic ban” will increase the demand for packaging paper and other paper products; the “waste ban” will make the waste paper market tighter, which will stimulate demand for wood pulp.
  • FF: It may establish a joint venture with Geely and a certain tier city in China to support FF’s production in China. The city will provide about 2,000 acres of industrial land, owned and used by joint ventures; the city will also provide government subsidies, and Geely will provide support in the market and manufacturing.
  • Canalys: China’s smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2020 shipped 84 million units, down 4% year-on-year; shipments for the whole year of 2020 fell 11% year-on-year to 330 million units. Due to the rapid deterioration of Huawei’s performance due to US sanctions, the overall market recovery has been hindered.

Shipment

  • Evergreen Shipping ordered more than 50,000 containers and ordered 20 container ships for USD 2.3 billion.
  • Wanhai Shipping (Singapore), a subsidiary of Wanhai Shipping, will order 12 3013TEU container ships at a cost of US$47.1 million each, totaling approximately US$565.2 million. These 12 ships will be built by the Japan Shipbuilding Union (JMU). Wanhai Shipping will also invest US$142 million to order 50,000 20-foot containers from CIMC, with an average unit price of approximately US$2835. Delivery is expected in the second quarter. This price is higher than the level of about US$1800 to US$2000 per box at the beginning of last year.
  • Hapag-Lloyd’s 2020 operating profit reaches 3 billion US dollars!
  • The US 3.11 million tons of agricultural products were rejected. From October to November last year, 177,938 20-foot standard containers (TEU, gross weight 17.5 tons/container) were shipped empty, that is to say, there were about 3.11 million tons of total value. U.S. agricultural products worth hundreds of millions of dollars cannot be shipped out.