Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1705
Amazon sidesteps price war with Temu
On Amazon, the largest e-commerce platform in the United States, merchants can decide how much to sell their products for themselves. But if Amazon’s monitoring system finds that the same product is cheaper on other platforms, it will suspend the merchant’s product sales, or even close the merchant’s store. If Amazon purchases and sells products on its own, it will automatically adjust the price according to the competitor’s platform, and adjust the share ratio and punish the supplier when the price of other platforms is lower.
Amazon has adhered to such an aggressive low-price strategy for more than 20 years, and continued to invest in the construction of warehouses and fleets to speed up delivery. It has firmly controlled the US e-commerce business, and its market share has reached 6 times that of the second-ranked Wal-Mart.
But recently its low-price strategy has failed. According to media reports, Amazon removed Temu, a cross-border e-commerce company incubated by Pinduoduo, out of its price comparison system. Most of Temu’s items are under $10. If Amazon had directly compared prices with Temu, it could have penalized a large number of merchants on the platform, or forced merchants to drop prices to unprofitable levels. Amazon said the change was due to the “questionable origin and possible counterfeiting” of the items.
Some merchants have sued Temu in court, accusing Temu and its suppliers of infringement. For example, a Chinese fitness equipment manufacturer named FitBeast claimed to have sued Temu in the U.S. District Court of Illinois last month, claiming that Temu sold counterfeit products with the same trademark for $5. The original price of the same item on Amazon is $25.99, and the latest discounted price is $16.99. “Wan Lian Cai” is currently unable to find this brand of products on Temu.
The user terms on Temu’s official website show that as the seller’s collection agent, Temu can provide services such as facilitating payments, returns, refunds, etc., but they cannot control and do not guarantee the quality, safety and legality of the products; unless otherwise specified, otherwise Temu does not endorse any merchant or product.
According to the research of a third-party analysis agency, even if the suspected counterfeit products are excluded, the prices of Temu’s products are generally lower than those of Amazon. Most of the products on both platforms come from China.
At present, 63% of Amazon’s platform merchants are from China. These merchants need to pay Amazon a high percentage of storage and delivery fees. Amazon currently offers next-day delivery for more than 20 million items in the US. To achieve such a speed in the United States, where labor costs are high, the cost naturally needs to be apportioned among the commodities. Pinduoduo directly sends products to the United States through postal services, Jitu and other channels, and uses subsidies to lower prices.
According to data from analysis agency YipitData, Temu’s GMV in May has reached 635 million US dollars, an increase of 347% from January.
The U.S. government is also taking steps to combat low-price competition on e-commerce platforms. According to media reports, U.S. lawmakers are working on a bill to cancel tariff exemptions for low-priced imported goods. The sponsor, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, said that such goods from China will be banned from tariff exemptions immediately after the bill is enacted.
In 2016, the United States raised the minimum regulatory tariff limit from US$200 to US$800. A single order of goods below this amount can enter the country without paying taxes. This move allows cross-border e-commerce to keep costs down. (Qiu Hao)
Indian government asks Chinese mobile phone makers to appoint Indian CEO locally
According to local Indian media reports, the Indian government has put forward a number of new requirements for Chinese smartphone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, etc., including that the CEO, CFO, COO, and CTO of local companies must be Indian nationals Personnel, as well as the assignment of manufacturing contracts and export distribution contracts to Indian companies, etc.
An industry insider told Wanwan Finance that in important markets like India and Indonesia, OV will set up a “national company”, funded by the headquarters and assign executives.
In 2014, when Xiaomi first entered the Indian market, it appointed Indian Manu Kumar Jain (Manu Kumar Jain) as the head of the Indian business. Under his leadership, Xiaomi grew into the mobile phone brand with the largest market share in India in 2017. In June last year, Chinese executive Xie Ziyang succeeded Jain as the top leader of Xiaomi India. In January this year, Jain announced his resignation from Xiaomi on social platforms.
During Jain’s leadership of Xiaomi India, its chief operating officer, chief financial officer and chief commercial officer were also held by Indians.
The above-mentioned industry insiders told Wanwan Finance that the business environment in India is relatively complicated, and the state governments have certain autonomy. If a Chinese company wants to build a factory locally, it needs to communicate with the local state-level government, and some of the benefits should be distributed to the states. At present, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo have established factories in India.
Last week, the Indian Law Enforcement Agency issued a document stating that it had formally issued notices to Xiaomi India, some of its executives, and three banks, Citigroup, HSBC and Deutsche Bank, accusing them of violating India’s Foreign Exchange Management Act. Based on the accusation, Indian authorities have previously seized about 4.8 billion yuan in funds from Xiaomi. According to media reports, Jain was warned by the Indian Law Enforcement Agency for the incident. In July last year, OPPO and vivo also received tax evasion charges from the Indian authorities.
According to the data of Counterpoint Research, a market research organization, in the first quarter of this year, the sales ranking of the Indian mobile phone market has undergone major changes. Samsung ranked first for the second consecutive quarter with a 20% market share, and vivo ranked second with a 17% market share, followed by Xiaomi , OPPO and realme. (Qiu Hao)
China’s chip imports decrease, but external pressure shows signs of easing
According to data from the General Administration of Customs, in the first five months of this year, China imported a total of 186.48 billion chips, with a total value of 905.01 billion yuan, down 19.6% and 18.6% year-on-year respectively.
The sharp decline in the number and value of chip imports is not only related to the down cycle of the entire industry, but also restricted by the US policy of restricting exports to China. What can better reflect the impact of the external environment is the import data of semiconductor equipment. In the first four months of this year, China imported a total of 3,270 semiconductor equipment worth 32.87 billion yuan, down 27.1% and 25.3% year-on-year respectively.
However, a series of recent events and rumors show that the external pressure faced by China’s semiconductor industry seems to be showing signs of easing.
First, last week, analog chip giant STMicroelectronics announced a cooperation with domestic LED chip manufacturer Sanan Optoelectronics, with a total investment of 3.2 billion US dollars to build a silicon carbide chip manufacturing plant in Chongqing. Silicon carbide is a new type of semiconductor material, which is widely considered by the industry to be a necessity for high-end electric vehicles to improve charging efficiency. The 8-inch wafer planned for this project is also the highest specification in the field of silicon carbide.
Earlier media reports said that Western Digital, a major U.S. memory maker, was newly granted an export license to supply Huawei last year. Yesterday there were market rumors that the United States intends to extend the exemption period for TSMC, Samsung and other chip manufacturers for one year, allowing their mainland fabs to purchase American semiconductor equipment and technology without a license, which means that at least in the next year, these Chipmakers will not be hindered from expanding production in mainland China.
The semiconductor industry consulting organization Xinmou Research has received inquiries from many American companies about restarting cooperation with China. The agency believes that there are three main reasons for the subtle changes in the external pressure of China’s semiconductor industry:
· The decline in demand for the chip industry and the superimposed macroeconomic downturn, American companies need the Chinese market;
· Various restrictions have been implemented, and the domestic chip manufacturing plan in the United States is also advancing, and American politicians and the industry have gained a certain sense of psychological security;
· Export control itself has also allowed Chinese local equipment and material companies to obtain more orders, and the output value of China’s semiconductor market has continued to increase, and the marginal effect of continuing to expand sanctions has decreased. (Qiu Hao)
Electricity consumption of the country’s three major industries rebounded in May
- In May, the electricity consumption of the whole society was 722.2 billion kwh, a year-on-year increase of 7.4%. In terms of industries, the primary industry increased by 16.9% year-on-year, the secondary industry increased by 4.1% year-on-year, and the tertiary industry increased by 20.9% year-on-year. (Gong Fangyi)
OTHER NEWS
Gates visits Beijing.
Bill Gates posted on his social account that he had just arrived in Beijing and returned to China for the first time since 2019. He was excited to be visiting with some of the Gates Foundation partners who have been working with each other on global health and development challenges for more than 15 years.
The overseas revenue of Mihayou’s new work exceeds that of “Yuan Shen”.
According to Sensor Tower data, Mihayou’s new game “Honkai: Interstellar Railway”, which was launched in late April, surpassed “Yuanshin” in overseas revenue in May, becoming the champion of overseas mobile game revenue. Nearly 40% of the revenue came from Japan. Cheng is from the United States. However, in terms of downloads, Tencent’s “PUBG Mobile” overseas downloads increased by 42% month-on-month, returning to the first place, and “Hanhuai: Star Railway” fell from the first place to the third place.
Guangzhou Metro Line 3 is ready to be “listed”.
Guangzhou Metro Group is promoting the infrastructure REITs business, and is planning to use the main line of Guangzhou Metro Line 3 as the underlying asset package for listing. The real estate appraisal value in the current period is about 5 billion yuan, and the cash distribution rate in the first year and the next year is expected to be no less than 5%. As the most crowded subway line in Guangzhou, Guangzhou Metro Line 3 passes through important stations such as Baiyun Airport, Guangzhou East Railway Station, Tianhe Bus Station, Zhujiang New Town, China Normal University, Canton Tower, Hanxi Chimelong, etc. The highest passenger volume this year exceeds 2 million .
U.S. inflation is retreating and the market is pricing in no rate hike this month.
The US CPI in May fell by 0.9 percentage points year-on-year to 4%, which was halved from the peak of 9.1% in June last year, and it was also the eleventh consecutive decline. In addition, core CPI rose 5.3% YoY in May. The Labor Department said the weaker-than-expected inflation was due to lower prices for energy sources such as gasoline, but core inflation was also underpinned by increases in rents, used cars and food prices last month. After the release of the data, the market expects that the probability of keeping interest rates unchanged is over 90%, and the probability of raising interest rates in July is still 63.8%.
Xinhua News Agency: Qin Gang had a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Blinken.
According to Xinhua News Agency, on June 14, Beijing time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang had a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. According to the report:
Qin Gang pointed out that since the beginning of the year, Sino-US relations have encountered new difficulties and challenges, and the responsibility is clear. China always views and handles Sino-US relations in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation.
Qin Gang clarified his solemn position on China’s core concerns such as the Taiwan issue, emphasizing that the United States should respect them, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, and stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security and development interests in the name of competition. It is hoped that the U.S. will take practical actions to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state in Bali and the relevant U.S. commitments, and work with China to effectively manage differences, promote exchanges and cooperation, and promote Sino-U.S. relations to stabilize and return to the track of healthy and stable development.
Four ministries and commissions in China issued a number of measures to reduce business costs.
China’s National Development and Reform Commission and other four departments issued a notice on the 13th, proposing 22 tasks to reduce the cost of real economy enterprises. In terms of taxes and fees, it is clear that before the end of 2023, small-scale taxpayers with monthly sales of less than 100,000 yuan will be exempted from value-added tax, and small-scale taxpayers will be subject to a 1% reduction in taxable sales income subject to a 3% levy rate. , to implement 5% and 10% value-added tax deduction for taxpayers in the production and living service industries, respectively.
The notice also mentioned strengthening support for key areas such as strategic emerging industries, guiding the reduction of financing costs for business entities, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises to reduce exchange rate hedging costs, continuing to implement policies such as phased reductions in unemployment insurance premiums, continuing to implement some job stabilization policies, Reduce the cost of land used by enterprises, stabilize the price of important raw materials, etc.
The price of hotels and air tickets during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday has been reduced.
According to Ctrip data, as of June 11, during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, the average price of domestic one-way air tickets including tax was about 887 yuan, which was about 20% lower than that during the May Day period. The average price of hotels in many places has also dropped significantly. Among them, the average price of hotels in Xi’an has dropped by 29% compared with the May Day holiday, Nanjing has dropped by 22%, and Guangzhou has dropped by 19%. Partly because of the seven-day holiday on May Day, people are more keen on long-distance travel, driving up prices for air tickets and hotels in popular destinations.
Some Singaporean investors are taking advantage of cheap Chinese commercial real estate assets.
According to MSCI data, in the fourth quarter of last year, sales of non-performing assets in China hit a quarterly record of US$1.93 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14% and an increase of 73% over the same period in 2019. Foreign buyers have been more aggressive than Chinese buyers during this downturn, the researchers said.
In October last year, CapitaLand, which is backed by the Singapore government, bought an office building in Beijing for US$290 million, which is about 30% lower than the valuation in 2021. In February this year, it raised about US$820 million and plans to find more discounts for acquisitions assets. Western investors such as Brookfield Asset Management have also shown interest. But MSCI said other global investors are more reluctant to invest in Chinese real estate because long-term returns may not be high as the country wean itself off property.
Challenging Nvidia, AMD released the AI chip MI300X.
On June 13, local time, AMD updated a series of new products and product information, including the GPU MI300X dedicated to training AI large models. MI300X benchmarks Nvidia’s flagship AI chip H100. Its HBM density is 2.4 times that of H100, and its bandwidth is 1.6 times that of H100. It can run larger parameter models and will be mass-produced in the fourth quarter of this year. Su Zifeng, CEO of the company, predicts that the data center AI accelerator market will reach US$30 billion this year and exceed US$150 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 50%.
AMD has a 20% share in the entire GPU market, but there is a big gap with Nvidia in the field of AI chips. Nvidia has an earlier layout, a more complete ecology and better use. However, some customers are willing to purchase AMD products to avoid Nvidia’s dominance and capacity crisis. Earlier, Microsoft had funded AMD to invest in the development of AI chips, and Amazon was also considering using AMD’s AI chips.
French AI is also hot, and a new company has set a European financing record.
According to media reports, the French AI company Mistral AI, which was established just four weeks ago, received 105 million euros in its first round of financing and a valuation of 240 million euros, which is the largest seed round of financing in European history. The three founders are all in their early 30s and have been engaged in AI research at Meta and DeepMind. The company has no products yet, and plans to launch a new large language model early next year, a generative AI similar to OpenAI, but both the model and the dataset will be open source.
Tesla has entered a new round of price increase cycle.
Tesla raised the price of the base Model Y by $250, its third price increase in the past two months. The Model Y now starts at $47,740, though prices are still significantly lower than at the beginning of the year, with long-range and performance versions remaining unchanged. After several previous price cuts, Tesla sold 422,000 vehicles in the first quarter, but the gross profit margin of the auto business fell by 7.4 percentage points.
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