MACRO : FOOD SAFETY, INFLATION & EMERGING MARKET MACRO IMPACT
Food price surges and weak emerging market currencies continue to destabilize macro environment of emerging markets and inflation in developed countries:
Turkish inflation soars to 73% in May, highest since 1998. (Reuters)
- Turkey’s annual inflation rate jumped to a 24-year high of 73.5% in May, fuelled by the war in Ukraine, rising energy prices and a tumbling lira.
- Transport and food costs have soared by 108% and 92% respectively over the last year, reflecting a deepening economic crisis for Turks struggling to afford basic goods. The domestic producer price index climbed 8.76% month-on-month in May for an annual rise of 132.16%.
- Economists see inflation remaining high for the rest of 2022 and ending the year at 63%, based on a median estimate, up from 52% in last month’s poll.
Singapore’s Chicken Supply Assured Via Many Sources. (Bloomberg)
- “We will be expecting more supplies of both chilled chicken from Australia and Thailand, and frozen chicken from sources such as Brazil and the US in the coming weeks,” Desmond Tan, minister of state for home affairs and sustainability and the environment, said
- Malaysia’s export ban of live chickens is a blow to Singapore, which imports about a third of its supply from its neighbor. Malaysia joins other governments in taking steps aimed at easing domestic prices as nations around the world battle rising food costs
Walmart to Add Four E-Commerce Warehouses to Speed Deliveries. (Bloomberg)
- In combination with traditional fulfillment centers, the new facilities will enable Walmart to reach 95% of the US population with next- or two-day shipping (Up from 75% currently) and create 4,000 new jobs.
- The new warehouses — developed with technology partner Knapp — will also ease the strain on employees by cutting a manual 12-step process for fulfilling orders to just five. That will mean less walking and lifting. The first warehouse will open in Joliet, Illinois, this summer. Additional centers will be built in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Texas over the next three years.
EV ECOSYSTEM AND DEVELOPMENT
China’s Geely launches first nine low-orbit satellites for autonomous cars. (Reuters)
- Geely has sent nine satellites into low earth orbit as it builds out a satellite network to provide more accurate navigation for autonomous vehicles. The self-designed and manufactured GeeSAT-1 satellites have an operating lifespan of five years and will disintegrate in earth’s atmosphere without leaving any space debris. Geely expects another 63 to be in orbit by 2025 and eventually plans to have a constellation of 240. Geely becomes the second major automaker to have an allied space business.
- SpaceX has more than 2,000 satellites in orbit for its Starlink network that offers commercial internet services. Starlink plans to have a first-generation network of 4,408 satellites.
Panasonic evaluating choices of U.S. state for battery plant. (Reuters)
- The Japanese conglomerate is looking at potential factory sites in Kansas and Oklahoma to supply the batteries to the Tesla’s plant in Texas. Mass production of the new battery is set to begin before the end of March 2024 at its plant in Wakayama, western Japan, before production is moved to North America.
- The 4680 format battery – 46 millimeters in width and 80 millimeters in height – is about five times bigger than those that Panasonic currently supplies, meaning the Tesla could be able to lower production costs and boost vehicles’ driving range.
WHO says 780 monkeypox outbreak cases reported, global risk ‘moderate’.
(The Straits Times)
- The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Sunday (June 5) that 780 laboratory-confirmed monkeypox cases had been reported to it from 27 non-endemic countries, while maintaining that the global risk level was moderate.
- The WHO said the 780 figure, for cases from May 13 to last Thursday, was probably an underestimate due to limited epidemiological and laboratory information.
- The WHO listed the non-endemic countries reporting the most cases as Britain (207), Spain (156), Portugal (138), Canada (58) and Germany (57). Besides Europe and North America, cases have also been reported – in single figures – in Argentina, Australia, Morocco and UAE.