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Volume: 27,314.96 tonnes, up 12.60% MoM (Oct.: 24,257.99 tonnes)
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Value: USD196,198,859, up 14.82% MoM (Oct.: USD170,869,621).
Q4 2020 witnessed recovery in China's vitamin exports, whose export volumes have risen for two straight months on a monthly basis, by 9.44% in Oct. and 12.60 in Nov.
The growth was driven by the concerns over vitamin supplies due to COVID-19 in overseas markets in Nov. and the reduced international cargo capacity.
Figure China's vitamin exports in Jan.–Nov.
Note: The import and export data between January and February 2020 is released together, according to the General Administration of Customs of China.
Source: CCM & China Customs
Lockdown in France and Germany:
On 28 Oct., 2020, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would enter a new nationwide lockdown starting from 31 Oct. and lasting at least the whole of November in order to control the spread of novel coronavirus. The announcement came hours after German Chancellor Angela Merkel laid out similar measures in Germany, which would enter a four-week lockdown from 2 Nov. Bars, pubs, gyms, cinemas and theatres will shut under the new regulations.
China's export freight shipment by air, sea and land in poor supply in Q4 2020:
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Commercial airlines have dramatically reduced their flight schedules amid the pandemic, leading to slashing international air cargo capacity. Besides, the air freight rates remained high.
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As for ocean shipping, global shipping companies have reduced some routes due to the epidemic, resulting in a shortage of empty transportation containers in Asia. Meanwhile, COVID restrictions made it take longer time to turn around ships at ports to China. According to importers in a Guangzhou Nansha Port, the cost of shipping a 40-foot container to Europe increased from about USD2,800–USD3,200 in Nov. 2019 to USD6,000–USD7,000 in Nov. 2020.
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In terms of land transport, with the air and sea transport capacity limited, China's rail export volume was nearly full in Nov. 2020. The China-Europe railway express run more than 10,000 cargo trips in 2020, with its cargo capacity improving. However, a lot of goods were congested at ports due to epidemic prevention and control measures. As cargo demand increasing by the year of 2020, the congestion would become more serious. Meanwhile, the railway freight prices rose by 500% compared with the same period in 2019.
Affected by the above factors, overseas vitamin downstream customers worried about the logistics disruption or delay, and increased vitamin purchases, especially for vitamin varieties whose prices had fallen to historical lows. It was reported that some of the customers' stocks would be available until the second quarter of 2021.
Broken out by variety, the eight vitamin products followed by CCM all showed increases in export volume in Nov. And VE experienced the sharpest growth, with
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Volume: 5,712.30 tonnes, up 25.64% MoM;
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Value: USD46,568,618, up 22.22% MoM;
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Price: USD8,152.34/t, down 2.72%.
In terms of destination, the top five countries of China's VE exports were:
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The US: 1,558.96 tonnes and USD12,108,916
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Germany: 959.78 tonnes and USD7,550,797
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Brazil: 371.70 tonnes and USD2,294,574
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The Netherlands: 366.13 tonnes and USD3,075,145
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Japan: 337.81 tonnes and USD2,594,768.
As for export price, China exported VE to the Netherlands at USD8,399.05/t, the highest among the five countries.
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Domestic VE supply in the short run:
Yimante Health (Jingzhou) Co., Ltd. (Yimante Health) has put its VE intermediate into production but its VE upgrading production line has not yet completed, which is expected to resume production in early 2021. Yimante Health has a capacity of 30,000 t/a VE. Its VE production line has been suspended for upgrading since early Sept. 2019. If the project resumes production smoothly, domestic VE supply will increase on the market.