Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1322
The inventory of China’s three major home appliance brands has doubled from before the epidemic
Gree, Haier, and Midea are probably the most popular home appliance brands in domestic kitchens and living rooms. According to public data, in 2020, half of the refrigerators purchased by Chinese people will be from Haier and Midea, and 70% of the air conditioners will be from Gree and Midea.
In the first half of this year, the total amount of goods in stock of the three major brands was 89.5 billion yuan, doubling from three years ago. Their slow sales also dragged down China’s home appliance market sales in the first half of the year by 11.2% compared with the same period last year.
- Sales of online air conditioners decreased by about 17% year-on-year, sales of washing machines decreased slightly, and sales of refrigerators increased slightly;
- The sales of these three types of offline products all fell by more than 20% year-on-year.
The market believes that part of the reason may be the housing downturn. Because consumers generally buy white goods such as air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, etc. when they move into new houses, which resonates with the real estate industry cycle.
Taking air conditioners, one of the most important categories, as an example, China’s real estate market was sluggish in 2014 and 2015, and the sales volume of air conditioners declined for two consecutive years. The large inventory of home appliance companies triggered the air conditioner price war in 2015; in 2018, real estate entered a downward trend again. The demand for air conditioners has weakened in the cycle, and this time the industry trough set off the air conditioner price war in the “Double 11” in 2019.
- In 2015 and 2016, China’s domestic air-conditioning shipments decreased by 10% and 3% year-on-year, respectively.
- In 2020, the sales volume of air conditioners in China decreased by 13% year-on-year. Last year, the sales volume of air conditioners increased slightly, but did not return to the level of 2017.
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Similarly, U.S. home sales posted their longest streak of monthly declines in eight years in July, and appliance sales fell 5.7% in August. The downturn in the overseas real estate market may affect the performance of Chinese white goods companies. Last year, the export revenue of Haier, Midea and Gree white goods accounted for 50%, 40% and 12% of the total revenue respectively. According to the General Administration of Customs, in the first half of the year, China’s total exports of home appliances fell by 8.2% year-on-year.
This year, though, things are more complicated. Either actively or passively, the era of electrical appliance companies relying on dealers to take inventory risks may no longer exist. In May, The Beijing News reported that Midea China would eliminate 30% of operators by the end of July. In August, Gree and its original agent in Hebei, Hebei Shengshi Xinxing Gree terminated the cooperation. Shengshi Xinxing CEO Xu Zifa took a stake in Philips Air Conditioning, and the contradiction between Gree and the dealer was gradually escalating . (Gong Fangyi)
Nvidia beats itself
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang also paints the future of cars with “computers that can drive themselves.” He didn’t think about producing computers, but along the lines of Nvidia’s business, he provided chips that surpassed his competitors, and even he had not yet put into production chips.
On September 20, NVIDIA launched DRIVE Thor, the most powerful autonomous driving chip at present, with 77 billion transistors and can process 2,000 trillion operations per second (TOPS), which is 8 times the computing power of the previous mass-produced flagship Orin. Twice as many Atlans in time for production – Jen-Hsun Huang announces that there will be no more Atlans – Nvidia beats itself.
The stronger the computing power of the chip, the more complex models can be supported and more functions can be realized. Today’s “smart” cars require a dedicated chip for each part. Huang Renxun said that a single Thor can support the intelligent cockpit system and automatic driving system in the car. But it’s not just the chip that determines the capabilities of a car, it’s the software that runs it.
At the same conference, Nvidia also announced other new products and trends:
- The RTX 40 series graphics cards double the performance of the previous generation, and the starting price has been raised. The RTX 4090 with stronger performance starts at 12,999 yuan (up 1,000 yuan), and the weaker RTX 4080 starts at 7,199 yuan (up 1,200 yuan).
- Nvidia’s best-performing GPU chip, the H100, is expected to ship in October.
The capital market was indifferent to Nvidia’s press conference. On the day of the press conference, Nvidia’s stock price fell by 1.54%, which was more than the Nasdaq index. So far this year, Nvidia’s market value has shrunk by 55% to $341.7 billion. (He Qianming)
The story behind the change of Asia’s richest man
Indian business magnate Gautam Adani has surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the world’s second-richest person with a fortune of $148 billion, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires ranking. At the same time, it also refreshed the highest record for Asians in the wealth ranking.
Adani’s assets have expanded rapidly this year, with an increase of about US$61 billion (about 420 billion yuan) in the first eight months, equivalent to a daily increase of 1.8 billion yuan. He replaced Mukesh Ambani as India’s new richest man in nearly a decade in February, and surpassed Bill Gates to become the world’s fourth richest man in July. It rose to third in early September and jumped to its current position in less than 20 days.
Like all super-rich, Adani’s main fortune comes from the appreciation of his eponymous company’s stock. Rising prices for energy sources such as oil, natural gas and coal have sent shares of companies soaring this year. As of the end of August, Adani Group’s total market value exceeded $251.51 billion, and the company’s stock price soared to a record level in September.
In 1988, he founded the Adani Group, seized the opportunity of the Indian government’s privatization of state-owned assets in 1991 to ease the debt problem, and won the right to operate the port of Mundra, India’s largest private port. Now this is a multi-faceted group with businesses spanning agribusiness, ports, airports, electricity, cement, real estate and more. It owns India’s largest private port, airport operator, city gas distributor and coal mine.
In the past decade, the position of Asia’s richest man has changed hands several times. China and India, as the fastest growing economies in the region, are more likely to emerge as Asia’s richest man during this period. According to the “World’s Billionaires List” released by Forbes every year, there are five richest people in Asia. Li Ka-shing occupied the position of the richest man from 2012 to 2015. In 2016, Wang Jianlin replaced Li Ka-shing and became the richest man for two years. With China’s urbanization process and the development of the market economy, the real estate industry has created many super-rich.
Then came the time when internet business owners were at their peak. In 2018, Ma Huateng became the richest man in Asia with a fortune of US$45.3 billion, and Ma Yun ranked third. “Double Horses” represent the rise of China’s Internet industry, and the throne of the richest man is also circulating between the two. Over the next three years, Ma Huateng, Mukesh Ambani and Jack Ma dominated the top three in Asia and took turns taking the top spot.
During this period, many rich people became the richest man for a short time due to the fluctuation of the company’s stock price. In 2014, the wealth of Lu Zhihe of K. Wah Group surpassed that of Li Ka-shing and became the richest man in Asia. Zhong Suisui also won the title of Asia’s richest man when Nongfu Spring was listed, with a market value of HK$700 billion at that time. (Intern Zeng Xing)
Southeast Asia ‘scrambles’ the rich
In September, Singapore launched the “Top Talent Visa” program, and Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia launched 10-year long-term residence visa programs. The policies of Southeast Asian countries are different, but they all try to attract the rich or top talents to immigrate through “gold-plated visas”, that is, allowing the latter to exchange residence qualifications through investment, and grant permanent residence and naturalization qualifications depending on the subsequent specific circumstances.
Singapore’s rush for talent is to alleviate the current labor market shortage and to boost its own attractiveness. In this year’s Hurun Global Rich List, more than half of Singaporeans on the list are immigrants. As of the end of April this year, the MAS had received applications from 143 family offices, of which 63 were from China. Henley & Partners predicts that 2,800 millionaires will immigrate to Singapore this year.
Except for Singapore and Brunei, the overall economic level of Southeast Asia is lagging behind. Behind the “golden visa” is the hope that foreign investors can inject new impetus into the domestic economy. Affected by the slowdown in demand in Europe and the United States, there was an “order shortage” in Vietnam’s manufacturing plants in the second half of this year. Tourism, on which the Thai economy is highly dependent, has been hit hard by the outbreak.
Thailand is expected to bring in residents worth the equivalent of 1 trillion baht in economic activity annually, while recruiting talent for industries such as electric vehicles, smart electronics, and digital technology. According to Thai media reports, 12 days after the opening of applications, the government received about 400 applications, of which four were retirees, followed by freelancers. 20% of the applicants are Americans and 15% are Chinese. (Intern Zeng Xing)
OTHER NEWS
Xiaopeng’s new G9 starts at 309,900 yuan.
On September 21, Xiaopeng officially announced the price range of the G9, ranging from 309,900 yuan to 469,900 yuan, and the official delivery will begin at the end of October 2022. Founder He Xiaopeng said at the press conference that if Porsche was the benchmark of the previous era, then the Xiaopeng G9 will take over and become the benchmark of the new era.
G9 has six models: 570 G, 570 E, 702 E, 650 E performance version, 650 X performance version, and 650 X launch commemorative version. The numbers in front represent the CLTC cruising range, G means no assisted driving function, the E version is a single orin chip, and the X version is a dual orin chip.
The minimum version, the 570 G, does not have driver assistance and is not available as an option. Other models not equipped with this function are optional, and the price is 28,000 yuan. The G9 is equipped with the first mass-produced vehicle-end 800V high-voltage SiC platform in China. Officially, it takes only 20 minutes to charge the battery from 10% to 80%.
Moody’s: State-owned assets have become the largest investor in China’s PE market.
On September 15, Moody’s, a credit rating and research agency, released a report saying that state-owned capital has become the largest investor in China’s private equity market, and while promoting the development of the industry, it is easy to increase credit risk. The report makes the following observations:
- In recent years, the participation of the Chinese government in the PE market has increased significantly. In 2020, government guidance funds (accounting for 7.8% of total fundraising) and government-backed investment platforms (19.2%) accounted for about 26.9% of the local PE market, which is approximately 3 times that of 2015.
- Thanks to government support and strong market confidence, the total fundraising in China’s PE market in 2021 will increase by 84.5% to 2.2 trillion yuan, but it is still in its infancy.
- The participation of state-owned assets in the PE market has many positive effects. It can fill the funding gap for public facilities, strategic and emerging industries, support the development of industries with higher initial risks and lower returns, and provide alternative financing channels for private and state-owned enterprises, reducing their risk. financing pressure.
- From 2017 to 2019, 47% of government-directed funds were invested in basic industries such as manufacturing and public health, 36.2% in strategic industries such as electronic equipment and biomedicine, and 16.8% in emerging industries.
- The increased participation of state-owned assets in the PE market may bring about credit risks, mainly due to inconsistent goals between the central and local governments, insufficient financial capacity of local governments, and differences in investment mechanisms and risk management.
- Local governments may choose to make equity investments through debt financing to increase their debt ratios.
- Without careful screening and risk management, government resources can be misallocated, eroding returns on investment.
- The liquidity of private equity investment is low and the investment period is long, which increases the financial pressure of state-owned assets.
Tibet requires people leaving Tibet to “check three times in five days”.
- On September 20, there were 123 new local confirmed cases, including 57 in Guizhou, 28 in Sichuan, and 13 in Tibet; 485 new local asymptomatic infections, including 155 in Tibet, 131 in Guizhou, and 102 in Heilongjiang.
- Guizhou added local “57+131”, of which “16+62” in Guiyang and “40+69” in Bijie.
- From 15:00 on the 23rd, Guiyang City will send a pop-up window prompt for people who should scan the site code for nucleic acid testing but have not been tested.
- Heilongjiang added the local “9+102”, of which Jiamusi City “8+92”.
- The Yanchang District of Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang City was silently managed for 7 days.
- Tibet added local “13+155”, of which Lhasa “12+144”
- From 0:00 on September 22, Tibet requires those leaving Tibet to “check three times in five days”.
- Tianjin added a new local “3+8”, one of which was a socially discovered case.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China held a 737 MAX operation review meeting.
On September 14, the Civil Aviation Administration of China and Boeing held a 737 MAX operation review meeting in Zhoushan, Zhejiang, to review the improved overall model training specifications. It is expected that after the questions raised at the meeting are resolved, the Civil Aviation Administration of China will issue the second revision of the “Boeing 737 Series Aircraft Aircraft Review Report” to complete the whole process of resuming the introduction of new 737 MAX aircraft.
The F1 2023 season schedule has been released, with the fourth stop in Shanghai, China.
Recently, F1 officially announced the 2023 season calendar, with a total of 24 Grand Prix races throughout the year. After a three-year absence, the Chinese Grand Prix is back on the calendar and will be held in Shanghai from April 14th to 16th. In addition, Shanghai will host the biennial International Auto Show in April next year. However, according to some Weibo users, there is no ticket option for Shanghai Station on the official website of F1.
ADB adjusts economic growth forecasts for Asia-Pacific countries.
On September 21, the Asian Development Bank forecast that the economy will grow by 4.3% this year, down from the 5.2% expected in April, and its forecast for economic growth in 2023 was lowered from 5.3% to 4.9%. It also lowered its forecasts for major advanced economies.
Tencent Music is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with a market value of over HK$62.5 billion.
On September 21, Tencent Music landed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the form of an introduction, with the stock code “1698”, up 1.22% as of the close. Tencent Music is currently the largest online music entertainment platform in China. As of the second quarter of this year, the number of online music paying users reached 82.7 million. At present, the concept stocks with a market value of 470 million yuan have returned to Hong Kong for listing from New York.
Gong Zhenyu, vice president of Suning.com, also serves as CEO of Carrefour China.
Tian Rui, the former CEO of Carrefour China, was transferred to the vice president of the Marketing Headquarters of Suning Tesco, responsible for the preparation of the store. In September 2019, Suning.com acquired an 80% stake in Carrefour China for 4.8 billion yuan, and Carrefour Group’s shareholding ratio dropped to 20%. In the first half of this year, Carrefour China closed 24 supermarkets.
Tencent denied the news of reducing its stake in Meituan, Shell and Didi.
A Tencent spokesman said that Tencent has no need to raise funds, and has no timetable and plan to reduce its stake, and does not need to sell any of its shares for repurchase. There have been rumors that Tencent is considering reducing its stake in some companies in order to cash out funds for repurchase. Potential targets for reduction may include Shell, Meituan and Didi.
YouTube offers ad revenue share to attract more creators.
In order to compete with TikTok, YouTube announced that starting next year, it will give 45% of short-video ad revenue to creators of high-view videos. Additionally, creators with 1,000 followers and 10 million views within 90 days can apply to join the YouTube Partner Program.
Russia’s MOEX index fell more than 9%.
On September 21, local time, the Russian stock market opened lower, the Russian RTS index fell by more than 7%, and the Russian MOEX index fell by more than 9%. The Russian ruble extended losses against the dollar, falling more than 2.5%, falling below the 62 level for the first time since Aug. 1.
Schneider Electric will fully acquire software company Aveva.
Schneider Electric is negotiating a bid of about 31 pounds a share with Aveva in a deal that would value Aveva at about 9.4 billion pounds ($10.6 billion) and would be Britain’s biggest takeover of the year, people familiar with the matter said. Currently, Schneider Electric owns about 60% of Aveva.
For the first time in the United States, anxiety screening is recommended for all adults under the age of 65.
A Medical Preventive Services Task Force of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends anxiety screening for all adults under the age of 65 in the United States. The task force pointed out that from August 2020 to February 2021, the proportion of adults in the United States with symptoms of anxiety or depression increased from 36.4% to 41.5%, due to inflation, crime rates and the epidemic, Americans’ anxiety levels constant increase.
Text | Gong Fangyi, intern Zeng Xing, intern Xue Yujie, He Qianming, Dou Yajuan
Editor | Gong Fangyi
Title picture丨The movie “When Happiness Comes Knocking”
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