- China Insights Weekly
- Posts
- Maglev Train Hits 1000 km/h 🚄 Foxconn to Hire 50k Staff for iPhone 16 📱 Starlink Rival Satellite Launch 🚀
Maglev Train Hits 1000 km/h 🚄 Foxconn to Hire 50k Staff for iPhone 16 📱 Starlink Rival Satellite Launch 🚀
China Insights Weekly for August 12, 2024. Unpacking China’s Economic and Technological Advances.
Image: Midjourney
Welcome back to this week’s edition of the China Insights Weekly Newsletter!
Some of the key takeaways this week:
Foxconn Hiring Spree: Foxconn hires 50,000 workers to ramp up iPhone 16 production in China.
Starlink Rivalry: China launches its “Thousand Sails” satellites to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink.
EV Milestone: Electric and hybrid cars make up 51% of new car sales in China for the first time.
Dive deeper into these stories and more by clicking the headlines below. We value your feedback—let us know your thoughts or suggestions on LinkedIn, X or Facebook.
If you like our newsletter, consider buying us a coffee! 🤓☕
🚀 Headlines
For the first time in China, new energy vehicles have outsold traditional fuel-powered passenger cars on a monthly basis. New energy vehicles include battery-only and hybrid-powered cars. The category accounted for 51% of new passenger cars sold in China last month. That's up from a penetration rate of 36% exactly a year ago. The latest report showed that battery-only cars outsold hybrid ones in July — for a battery-only penetration rate of 28%. Overall auto sales fell by 2.8% to 1.72 million vehicles in July. Retail sales of new energy vehicles surged by nearly 37% to 878,000 cars in July.
China’s exports grew 7% in July, as rare earth exports fell 19%, while imports picked up with growth of 7.2% (link)
US dollar-denominated imports rose in July by 7.2%, far more than the forecast of 3.5%. China’s imports from the US surged by 24% year-on-year. On a year-to-date basis, China’s imports from the US remained down by 1.4%, while exports were up by 2.4%. China’s imports from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) rose by 11%, while those from the European Union (EU) climbed by 7%. Exports in US dollar terms rose by 7% in July from a year ago, missing expectations for a 9.7% increase. They are 35.5% higher than July 2019. China’s US dollar exports to the US and EU grew by about 8% year-on-year in July, while those to the ASEAN surged by 12%, making the region China’s largest trading partner by far. China’s exports of cars rose by 26% year-on-year to 553,000 vehicles. Exports of home appliances climbed by 17%, while exports of smartphones also grew. Rare earth exports fell by 19%. China’s imports of crude oil rose by 8%, while that of natural gas rose by 6%.
Apple will unveil the iPhone 16 lineup in September, and it has reportedly set a shipment target of 90 million iPhone 16 units. To meet the target, Apple's manufacturing partner Foxconn has hired 50,000 new workers at its Zhengzhou factory in China. The peak iPhone production season usually begins in August and ends in December. Foxconn started offering an increased hourly wage of between CNY23.50 and CNY26 (USD3.30 and USD3.60) to temporary employees and increased the hiring bonus from 6,000 Yuan to up to 7,500 Yuan at the Zhengzhou factory, which is the world's largest iPhone production base. Foxconn also plans to invest CNY1 billion (USD137.4 million) to build a headquarters complex for the development of new businesses in Zhengzhou.
China launched its first batch of internet satellites to form part of a constellation it hopes will rival US-based SpaceX's Starlink. A Long March 6A carrier rocket took off from the Taiyuan launch center in the northern Shanxi Province of China to deliver the initial 18 satellites into space. The constellation, known as "Thousand Sails," is a low-Earth orbit set of more than 15,000 satellites that China has said will create global internet coverage. By 2025, China is aiming to deploy 648 satellites in the first phase of the constellation.
Talkie is a popular AI chatbot app that allows users to interact with virtual versions of celebrities. Imagine chatting with a virtual Donald Trump, Taylor Swift, or even your custom-made romantic partner. It is owned by the Chinese tech company MiniMax based in Shanghai. Talkie launched about a year ago and has since climbed to the fifth spot among the most downloaded free entertainment apps in the US. Talkie runs on OpenAI’s foundation model rather than MiniMax’s in-house engine. It generates real revenue for MiniMax through advertisements and subscriptions. Users can chat with their favorite AI characters without interruption by paying a subscription fee.
CATL and BYD continued to hold the top two positions as the world's largest battery makers in the first half of 2024, both increasing their share slightly from January-May. CATL continued to rank first in the world with a 37.8% share. That's higher than 35.7% at the same time last year. BYD's power battery installations in January-June were 57.5 GWh, up 22% from 47.1 GWh in the same period last year. The company ranked second in the January-June period with a 15.8%, the same as in the same period last year. The South Korean LG Energy Solution's installed power battery volume was 46.9 GWh, up 5.7% year-on-year. It ranked third with a 12.9% share, down from 14.9% a year earlier. Another South Korean firm SK On was fourth with a 4.8%, China's CALB was fifth with a 4.6% share, and South Korea's Samsung SDI was sixth with a 4.5% share.
Cambodia on Monday broke ground to build a China-funded canal to link the capital Phnom Penh to the sea. The USD 1.7 billion, 180-kilometer (111 miles) Funan Techo canal is planned to connect the country’s capital with Kep province on Cambodia’s south coast, giving it access to the Gulf of Thailand. Cambodia hopes the 100-meter (328 feet)-wide, 5.4-meter (17.7 feet)-deep canal that will divert ship traffic from the Mekong and Bassac rivers will lower the cost of shipping goods to the country's sole deep-sea port, Sihanoukville, and reduce reliance on Vietnamese ports. Nearly 40% of Cambodia’s over USD 11 billion foreign debt is owed to China
Retail sales of services grew 7.5% in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2023, while goods sales rose just 3.2%. With services at just about 50% of gross domestic product, the sector has plenty of room to grow before reaching the 75% level seen in the US or the European Union. Bookings for custom tours, which let small groups select their routes, destinations, vehicles, and food options, surged more than tenfold in the first seven months of 2024. That outpaced a 1.9-time increase in traditional group tours, despite the higher cost of custom tours. To offset declining revenue from land sales, regional governments are capitalizing on the experience boom by sponsoring new cultural and sports activities to attract tourists and stimulate growth.
🏞️ China Snapshot
This shot was taken in the historically rich city of Xiangyang, Hubei Province. The Shengshi Tangcheng Scenic Area doubles as both a meticulously designed film set for historical dramas as well as a vibrant tourist destination with performances running into the evening. Xiangyang is known for its significant historical battles during the Three Kingdoms period.
🎁 Bonus Stories
China enters golden age of tennis after first women's singles Olympic gold, mixed doubles silver (link)
A new golden age of tennis has kicked off in China after 21-year-old Zheng Qinwen won the country's first women's singles gold at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris, while Wang Xinyu and Zhang Zhizhen took the silver in the mixed doubles event. Chinese tennis players, including Zheng Qinwen and Li Na, the first Asian to win a Grand Slam singles title in 2011, grew up outside the system and were trained by their family and personal investment, unlike domestic table tennis and badminton players, who train on government expenses. The Olympic success shows China can produce outstanding world-class athletes via a market-based approach. Zheng Qinwen ranked 15th highest-paid female athlete in the world in 2023 with USD 1.7 million in prize money and USD 5.5 million from sponsorships, with her commercial value expected to surge after winning the Olympic gold.
China has completed the demonstration test of a novel ultra-high-speed (UHS) maglev transportation system, marking another milestone for the train that can travel at speeds of up to 621 miles per hour (1,000 km/h). The UHS low-vacuum tube magnetic levitation transportation system has been jointly developed by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Limited and Shanxi. This was the first full-size trial of the UHS low-vacuum tube magnetic levitation transportation system. The test was conducted by a superconducting maglev vehicle in a 2-km-long pipeline with a low-vacuum environment. The results showed that the train successfully achieved controlled navigation, stable suspension, and safe stopping. In the future, the train will lower travel time between Beijing and Shanghai to just 1.5 hours.
Love China Insights? Subscribe and share with your friends!
Did you like the content? Check out last week's China Insights post for more top stories.
Reply