GreenergyDaily

Apr. 1, 2024

1. The 1st unit of 2.32-mln-kW Qinghai Maerdang Hydropower Station, the largest hydropower station under construction in the Yellow River basin, was connected to the grid for operation Mon in NW China's Qinghai. The unit can supply 13.2-mln-kWh of #greenpower a day for 1.1 mln households.

2. China's commercial vehicle production and sales demonstrated solid growth in the first two months of 2024, with production up 9% YoY to 560,000 units and sales increasing 14.1% YoY to 575,000 units during the period, the latest industry data showed.

3. Exports of Upper Zakum crude from the UAE fell sharply in March after ADNOC diverted more supply to its own refinery and boosted shipments of its lighter Murban oil, according to traders, analysts and shipping data. The swap in oil grades at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's (ADNOC's) Ruwais refinery has tightened medium-sour crude supply in Asia, limiting the number of Upper Zakum cargoes that can be delivered during S&P Global's price assessment process for Middle East crude Dubai and supporting the benchmark.

4. Chery announced on Monday that it would offer purchase tax breaks, trade-in subsidies and auto finance discounts on some of its best-selling combustion models, as a cutthroat price war rages in the world's largest auto market. Among Chery's combustion models eligible for the new incentives effective Monday are the Tiggo 8 Pro champion edition, Tiggo 9 and Arrizo 8 high-performance edition, the automaker said in a statement on its WeChat account.

5. Xiaomi is advising would-be buyers of its new SU7 electric sedan that they could face an up to seven-month wait, its app showed on Monday, in a sign that the Chinese electronics maker is enjoying strong demand for its vehicle. Xiaomi began allowing consumers to place orders for its SU7 electric vehicle sedan on Thursday, after it announced the prices of the car which started at $29,870. On Friday night, it said pre-orders hit 88,898 in the first 24 hours.

6. China's SAIC Motor aims to cut thousands of jobs this year at its joint ventures with General Motors and Volkswagen and at an electric-car unit, according to Reuters citing two people with knowledge of the matter. The state-owned automaker hopes to cut 30% of employees at SAIC-GM, 10% at SAIC Volkswagen and more than half at its Rising Auto EV subsidiary, the people said.

7. The Chinese currency renminbi (RMB), or the yuan, retained its spot as the fourth most active currency for global payments by value in February,  with a global share of 4%, according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

8. XPeng Motors today cut the price of the G9 by CNY20,000 (USD2,767) to CNY243,900 (USD33,740) for a limited period. Huawei and Seres also lowered the price of the Aito M7, another rival to the Xiaomi SU7, by the same amount to CNY229,800. The SU7 is priced from CNY215,900.

9. Tesla today will raise the prices in China of its ModelY by CNY5,000 (USD690) to CNY263,900 (USD36,540) for the standard, CNY304,900 (USD42,220) for the long-range, and CNY368,900 (USD51,080) for the performance edition, its website showed. The EV maker made a similar move in the US last month.

10. Global liquefied natural gas supplies are shifting back to Asia after a drop in prices prompted a flurry of purchases from emerging nations. Shipments to Asia rose to about 24 million tons in March, a 12% increase from last year and the highest ever for the month, according to ship-tracking figures from data intelligence company Kpler. The growth was led by importers including China, India and Thailand.