The market of digital currency concept strengthened this week. With the continuous favorable policies, the concept of digital currency, as an important part of the new infrastructure, has been popular since the beginning of 2022. Digital currency refers to the legal tender cash in digital form issued by the central bank and endorsed by the central bank, which is equivalent to M0 in the definition of currency. Digital RMB (DCEP) refers to the digital form of RMB. Digital currency has the characteristics of double-layer delivery, M0 substitution, loose account coupling, controllable anonymity, prudent loading of smart contracts, dual offline payment, etc. based on blockchain technology, it can effectively ensure the security of currency use.
Since 2022, the digital currency industry policy has been continuously favorable. In January 2022, the digital RMB app was officially launched. At the same time, a total of 9 banks can open personal digital RMB wallets, and the digital RMB has begun to be widely used. On February 8, 2022, the people’s Bank of China, the State Administration of market supervision, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission jointly issued the “14th five year plan” for the development of financial standardization, which proposed to steadily promote the development of legal digital currency standard. Comprehensively consider the security and credibility infrastructure, issuance system and storage system, registration center, payment transaction communication module, terminal application, etc., and explore the establishment and improvement of legal digital currency infrastructure standards.
On February 8, 2022, the European Commission announced the chip act, which plans to significantly increase the EU’s share of global chip production. According to the act, the EU will invest more than 43 billion euros in public and private funds to support chip production, pilot projects and start-ups. Among them, 11 billion euros will be used to strengthen existing research, development and innovation to ensure the deployment of advanced semiconductor tools and pilot production lines for prototype design and testing. At the same time, the EU reiterated its development goal: by 2030, chip production capacity will account for 20% of the world, and semiconductor production capacity must reach four times the current level within eight years. At the same time, strengthen the ability to develop the next generation processor and semiconductor technology, aim at the 5nm process of cutting-edge manufacturing, and gradually move towards the 2nm technology node. The passage of the bill will further intensify the fierce competition in the global semiconductor industry.
The world’s largest chip acquisition failed. On February 8, 2022, Softbank group and NVIDIA announced that they agreed to terminate the transaction of NVIDIA’s acquisition of arm. As a seller, Softbank will receive up to $1.25 billion in transaction breakdown fees, recorded as fourth quarter profits, while NVIDIA will retain arm’s long-term license for 20 years.
The new Chilean President Gabriel borridge supports the nationalization of lithium mines and advocates the establishment of state-owned lithium enterprises, which will have an uncertain impact on the equity participation rights of Chinese enterprises in Chilean lithium companies. At the same time, the Chilean constitutional assembly adopted a proposal in early February, which was submitted and adopted by the parliamentary Environment Committee to promote the nationalization of copper, lithium and other strategic assets. As part of Chile’s plan to draft a new constitution, in the future, the proposal will face a vote by all members of Parliament. The final draft will hold a referendum later this year, and the process of lithium nationalization will be further accelerated. In addition to promoting the nationalization of mineral resources, on January 27, the Mining Committee of the Chilean Senate also passed a proposal to amend the mining royalties in Chile, which aims to increase the tax revenue of the mining industry. This bill may be gradually extended to lithium mines, which will have a negative impact on the profitability of the mines. According to the latest data from the US Geological Survey (USGS), the confirmed reserves of lithium in Chile have reached 9.2 million tons, accounting for 44% of the global lithium resources. The nationalization of lithium mines in Chile has increased uncertainties for local mining enterprises and future lithium project auctions, and the uncertainty of global lithium resource supply has increased. At the same time, strengthening taxes and other means have increased the operating costs of mining enterprises, which may further boost the price of lithium.
Weekly meso data
Upstream, the US crude oil price rose, the inventory level rose, the natural gas price fell, and the inventory level fell sharply. In terms of coal prices, China’s coking coal, coke and thermal coal futures prices all rose. Power coal prices in Europe and Newcastle rose, Richard power coal prices fell, and the number of ships at anchorage decreased. LME copper, zinc, tin, nickel and aluminum nonferrous futures prices rose, LME lead futures prices fell, Comex gold and copper prices rose, and Comex silver prices fell. The price of lithium metal rose, the price of tungsten concentrate in Jiangxi rose, and the BDI index fell. In the middle reaches, the futures and spot prices of rebar increased, the prices of hot-rolled coil and cold-rolled coil increased, Qingdao Port International Co.Ltd(601298) Brazilian Caracas powder car sector price and Jiangsu Lianyungang Port Co.Ltd(601008) Australian Pb ore car sector price increased, and the capacity utilization rate of steel mills decreased slightly. Polysilicon material prices rose. Downstream, the transaction area of commercial housing in the top ten cities fell sharply. The average price of pork fell and the wholesale price index of vegetables in Shandong rose.
Risk tip: policy risk
