World

  • Reuters: Due to the impact of the continuous spread of the COVID-19 epidemic on logistics-related services, the US trade deficit in 2020 hit a new high in the past 12 years. In 2020, the US trade deficit jumped 17.7% to reach US$678.7 billion, the highest annual value since the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008. Among them, export trade fell by 15.7%, reaching the lowest level since 2010. Import trade also fell by 9.5%, setting a new low in four years.
  • Indonesia’s Central Bureau of Statistics: Affected by COVID-19, Indonesia’s GDP in 2020 fell by 2.07% from the previous year, the first contraction since the 1998 Asian financial crisis.
  • The global chip shortage has spread from cars to mobile phones and game consoles. Apple recently stated that sales of some new high-end iPhones are limited by a shortage of parts. Both NXP and Infineon said that these supply restrictions are no longer limited to the automotive industry. Sony said that due to production bottlenecks, it may not be able to fully meet the demand for its new game consoles in 2021.
  • Coingecko: The current global market value of cryptocurrencies has exceeded 1.2 trillion US dollars. Bitcoin ranked first, with a market value of approximately US$749.6 billion, and its current market value accounting for 62.44%; Ethereum ranked second, with a market value of approximately US$192.7 billion, and its current market value accounting for 16.04%; Tedcoin ranked third. The market value is approximately US$27.4 billion, and the current market value accounts for 2.27%.
  • Russian Satellite Network: NASA and SpaceX signed a contract for the launch of the SPHEREx space telescope project. This mission aims to understand the evolution of the universe and the formation of galaxies. The SPHEREx project will use near-infrared light to map the entire sky, and the mission may start as early as 2024.

China

  • On the 9th day of the Spring Festival movie pre-sales, the total box office of the Spring Festival movie pre-sales in 2021 exceeded 400 million, and the box office on the first day of the new year exceeded 300 million.
  • In 2020, the export value of Ningxia wine reached 2.65 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 46.4%. The main export countries and regions are the United States, the European Union, Australia, Japan, etc. In the unfavorable foreign trade environment brought about by the epidemic, Ningxia’s wine “going to sea” speeded up, achieving growth against the trend. At present, Ningxia’s wine planting area has reached 492,000 mu, accounting for a quarter of China’s wine grape area.
  • Yiwu Customs: In 2020, the total import and export value of Yiwu reached 312.95 billion yuan, an increase of 5.4% over 2019. This is the first time that Yiwu’s total import and export value has exceeded 300 billion yuan.

Industry

  • Wang Chaoyang, a member of the American Academy of Sciences: Mass production of all-solid-state batteries should be after 2030. Of course, if there is a huge scientific breakthrough, it may happen within 10 years. At present, the energy density of liquid lithium-ion batteries has reached 300Wh/kg, which has reached a limit. The next step or the next generation of batteries will develop solid-state batteries and gradually transition to all-solid-state lithium batteries.
  • CCTV Finance: It has been one month since the “straw ban” was officially implemented. Due to cost considerations, many milk tea brands use paper straws, but this has aroused dissatisfaction among many consumers. Many consumers even describe drinking milk tea with paper straws like eating toilet paper cores and drinking paper straws, even suddenly dispersed. The most important way to solve this problem is to increase efforts to develop new materials and new processes as soon as possible. After mass production, the price may be reduced.
  • Passenger Association: In 2020, the global sales of generalized new energy passenger vehicles will reach 5.16 million units, a year-on-year growth rate of 17%. Among them, the global sales of plug-in hybrid, pure electric, and fuel cell narrow new energy vehicles reached 2.86 million units, a year-on-year increase of 36%. The world share of China’s new energy passenger vehicles will reach 51% in 2019. However, in 2020, affected by the policy environment and the epidemic, the world position of China’s new energy vehicle market has dropped to 41%, and Europe is clearly catching up and surpassing it.
  • CCTV Finance: In 2020, the total number of leased storage rooms in Japan will exceed 10,000, and the market size will reach 65 billion yen, or about 4 billion yuan. At present, the proportion of households using rental storage rooms in Japan is only about 1%, and there is huge room for growth. An analysis report predicts that by 2025, the market size of Japanese rental storage rooms will increase to 100 billion yen, or about 6.2 billion yuan.

Company

  • TechWeb: According to reports by foreign media citing people familiar with the matter, Apple has negotiated with Hyundai and Kia on co-production of electric vehicles, but the negotiations have recently been suspended. Apple has also been discussing similar plans with other automakers. It is not clear whether the negotiations will restart, and when. If negotiations eventually resume, Kia is more likely to win, and it is seeking to produce Apple cars at its plant in Georgia.