Fitch Ratings states that the global container shipping sector will face pressure from oversupply and the easing of disruptions in the Red Sea shipping route, while the performance of tankers and dry bulk shipping may remain strong next year. Fitch expects the growth of container transportation volume to be around 3% in 2025, with supply growth exceeding 5%. The institution forecasts that container freight rates in 2025 will also decrease. Fitch anticipates that by 2025, there will be an increase in demand for tankers and dry bulk, although the growth rate will be lower than this year. Fitch notes that driven by reduced global demand for iron ore and coal, as well as trade tensions, the dry bulk shipping volume in 2025 is expected to increase by about 1%, compared to a growth rate of 2.7% in 2024.

Taiwan Semiconductor's 2-nanometer process technology details have been revealed with a 15% performance increase and a 30% reduction in power consumption. At the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) held in San Francisco on the 17th, Taiwan Semiconductor, a global wafer foundry giant, disclosed more details of its highly anticipated 2-nanometer (N2) process technology. Compared to the previous generation process, the N2 process has seen a 15% increase in performance and a significant 30% decrease in power consumption, leading to a notable improvement in energy efficiency. Furthermore, due to the application of Gate-All-Around (GAA) nanosheet transistors and N2 NanoFlex technology, the transistor density has also increased by 1.15 times. The N2 NanoFlex technology allows manufacturers to integrate different logic units within the smallest area, further optimizing the process performance. It is reported that the price of N2 process wafers will be more than 10% higher than 3-nanometer process wafers.

BYD's chief scientist Lian Yubo said: "As of now, BYD's cumulative sales of new energy vehicles has exceeded 10 million units. By the end of this month, we can probably achieve an annual sales volume of 4.25 million complete vehicles." He also mentioned: "There are still some challenges in industry development, such as the need to improve the overall risk resistance capability of our industry chain, breakthroughs are still needed in areas like chips, operating technology, industrial software core materials, and we still need to strengthen our efforts to achieve complete autonomy and controllability." (Yicai)

Fujifilm Holdings Corporation Unsponsored ADR will invest $0.31 billion to build a semiconductor equipment component factory in Thailand. The Star Daily News reported on the 12th that Foxconn's semiconductor equipment plant, Jingding, will expand its investment in Thailand. The plan to invest 10.5 billion Thai baht (about $0.31 billion) to build a semiconductor equipment component factory in Chonburi and Rayong, Thailand, has been approved by the Thailand Board of Investment.

In November, the price of cells stabilized with a minor increase expected in 2025. According to the financial association on December 12th, TrendForce indicated that in November 2024, China's electric vehicle sales continued to grow, driving demand for power batteries. The prices of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells remained stable, while ternary cells experienced a slight decline. In December, as China's energy storage grid integration comes to an end, the growth rate of orders slowed down, resulting in the short-term stabilization of energy storage cell prices. It is expected that during the peak season in 2025, some lithium battery materials may experience a minor price increase, potentially repairing the severe losses incurred by companies in the previous period. However, as the supply and demand relationship has not yet shifted from surplus to shortage, the expected increase in material prices is limited. Additionally, with battery manufacturers actively controlling costs, next year's cell price trend will mainly focus on stability.

New York coffee prices hit a new high in the market. Increasing concerns about global supply shortages have made it one of the hottest CSI Commodity Equity Index this year. Due to poor harvests in major producing countries, Arabica coffee Futures prices surged by about 80% this year. On Tuesday, it rose by 4.9% at one point, reaching the highest level since data was available in 1972.

NVIDIA is suspected of violating the Anti-Monopoly Law, and the Market Regulatory Administration has decided to investigate the case according to the law. Recently, the Market Regulatory Administration has initiated an investigation into NVIDIA's suspected violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law and the announcement of the Market Regulatory Administration on the decision of anti-monopoly review of NVIDIA's acquisition of Mellor Cisco Technology Co., Ltd.'s equity with additional restrictive conditions (Market Regulatory Administration Announcement [2020] No.16). (Shishuo Xinyu)

Saudi Aramco: Saudi Arabia cuts all oil prices to Asia in January. Saudi Aramco: Saudi Arabia cuts all oil prices to Asia in January, lowering the official selling price of Arab light crude oil sold to Asia in January by 80 cents, setting it at a premium of 0.9 US dollars to Oman/Dubai average (previously at a premium of 1.7 US dollars). Saudi Aramco also lowered the prices of oil sold to Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean region, but there was no change in the prices of oil sold to North America.