Reading Global(2022.04.12)
The first case of new subtype "XE" of Omi kerong was detected in Japan
Kyodo News Agency reported on the 12th that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare released news on the 11th that a woman in her 30s who had arrived at Narita Airport was diagnosed with the new subtype "XE" of the Omiljun strain. XE is a mixed recombinant strain of the Olmikron strain "BA.1" and subtype "BA.2" genetic information, and has been suggested to be more transmissible than BA.2. This is the first time that an infected person has been confirmed in Japan.
According to the Ministry of Public Welfare, the woman arrived at Narita Airport on March 26 and stayed in the United States as an asymptomatic infected person. As an infection was confirmed at the time of entry testing, the woman was quarantined in a facility dedicated to positive persons as required and then left. She received two doses of the U.S. Pfizer vaccine. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases of Japan conducted a detailed analysis of the genetic sequence of the sample it tested and confirmed it as XE.
In addition, it is reported that two more samples may have been found in the quarantine that may be mixed and recombinant genetic information of the Omiljun strain, but the specific type has not yet been determined.
According to the Institute of Infectious Diseases, as of the 5th, at least more than 1100 XE cases have been found in the UK, but the overall proportion is less than 1%. There are reports that "the increase in infected people is 12.6% faster than that of BA.2", although the specific circumstances such as the degree of severe illness are not yet clear. The basic properties of the virus and the effects of drugs and vaccines are considered the same as BA.2.
South Korea's first case of recombinant strain XL infection of the new crown pneumonia virus
Lianhe Zaobao reported on the 12th that the South Korean Central Epidemic Prevention Countermeasures Headquarters said on the 12th that South Korea found a confirmed case of the recombinant strain "XL" infected with the new crown pneumonia virus for the first time, and the epidemic prevention department is currently conducting an epidemiological investigation.
The confirmed case was confirmed on the 23rd of last month, and the covid-19 vaccine supplement has been completed, and the patient is asymptomatic. XL is one of the 17 recombinant strains (XA to XS) discovered to date, formed from the original strain BA.1 and the subtype variant BA.2 of the NEW CROWN pneumonia variant strain, and there is no information on the transmission characteristics of this strain.
According to the Countermeasures Division, the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified XL as an Omicron-like strain, and its characteristics are not expected to change significantly. In view of the fact that there is no information on its spread and severe illness rate, the epidemic prevention department will strengthen the monitoring of the mutant strain.
WTO lowers global trade growth forecast for 2022 due to COVID-19 and Ukraine's "double whammy"
Reuters reported that the World Trade Organization (WTO) lowered its expectations for global trade growth this year from 4.7% to 3% on the 12th, due to the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war, and warned that soaring prices could lead to a food crisis.
The global trade watchdog report said the COVID-19 pandemic continues to weigh on the economic recovery, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is now in its seventh week, causing even more serious damage to the world economy.
The WTO said the twin blows of COVID-19 and the war had disrupted supply chains, increased inflationary pressures and lowered expectations for output and trade growth.
The WTO forecasts a modest rise in global trade growth to 3.4 percent in 2023, noting that estimates for both 2022 and 2023 are less certain than usual due to conflict uncertainty.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala also warned that a potential food crisis could hit poor countries, including some 35 African importers, with export disruptions in Ukraine and Russia, two major suppliers of food and other commodities.
She urged countries to remain committed to the multilateral trading system to avoid the risk of its fragmentation into two areas.
"3D stacking" drives semiconductors to continue to evolve
Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on the 12th that the importance of three-dimensional (3D) stacking technology is increasing in the development of cutting-edge semiconductors for personal computers and high-performance servers. Against the backdrop of a slowdown in the "fine-tuning" of increasing integration by narrowing the width of the electrical route, 3D technology will assume the role of semiconductors in continuously improving performance.
In January, the personal computer CPU (central processing unit) launched by the American Ultramicro Semiconductor Company (AMD) attracted the attention of the semiconductor industry. It is characterized by its structure. Usually the operation and temporary storage functions are implemented on the same silicon substrate, but AMD's products are performed by 2 different chips, which are stacked vertically in 1 package. As a result, the capacity of temporary storage is increased to 3 times the usual, and the processing performance of the game chip is 15% higher than that of the previous product. AMD plans to apply 3D technology to server CPUs.
On March 8, Apple released the M1 Ultra, the highest-end chip for personal computers, connecting two chips arranged horizontally to each other, equipped with 114 billion components.
Artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor startup UK Graphcore released a server chip using 3D technology on March 3. Stacking AI processors and power-supplied chips to make them work together efficiently, improving processing performance by up to 40% and power efficiency by up to 16% compared to previous AI semiconductors.
It is TSMC that contracts manufacturing orders from AMD, Apple and Graphcore. TSMC, which is at the forefront of micro-technology, will also focus on the development of 3D semiconductor technology.
French research firm Yole predicts that the market size of cutting-edge semiconductor packaging, including technologies such as 3D, will increase to 1.5 times that of 2021 to reach $51.9 billion in 2026. With technological innovation, new locomotives will be born in the semiconductor field, and related markets are expected to expand.
Mercedes-Benz is betting on India's upstart to boost luxury car sales
Reuters reported on the 12th that a senior official of Mercedes-Benz in Germany said that the company is betting that more and more young and new billionaires will drive India's demand for luxury cars, and its sales growth rate will exceed that of mass-market cars.
Martin Schwenk, chief executive of Mercedes-Benz India, said India will have a growing number of "dollar millionaires" including young entrepreneurs or high-income professionals who appreciate the luxury elements and technology of cars even more.
Schwenk said the company's customer base is expanding and gradually surpassing its traditional customers. "In the future, we will see the luxury car market growing higher than the mass market, and the average age of buyers has also dropped from the previous 45 years old to under 40 years old," he said. ”
However, the biggest growth obstacles for global automakers are the shortage of semiconductors and the logistical woes exacerbated by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. For Mercedes-Benz India, Schwenk said, this has led to an order backlog of 4,000 vehicles.
According to the 2021 Hurun India Wealth Report, India's startup boom and stock market boom are creating a new crop of wealthy people flocking to luxury brands like Rolex, Louis Vuitton and Gucci.
The report shows that the number of Indian households with net worth of at least $1 million grew by 11% to 458,000 in 2021 and is expected to grow by 30% over the next five years.
India is largely a small and low-cost car market, with luxury cars accounting for just over 1 percent of total sales of about 3 million vehicles a year.
Auto market data provider JETO Dynamics says Mercedes-Benz is the best-selling luxury brand with a market share of more than 40 percent, and it competes with Audi, BMW and Tata Motors' Jaguar Land Rover.
In 2021, Mercedes-Benz sales in India grew by more than 40% to 11,242 vehicles, departing from the low of 7,893 vehicles during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
But Mercedes-Benz achieved 80 per cent growth in high-end models such as the GLS, S-Class and GLS Maybach, all priced at more than 10 million rupees ($131337).
Novartis will cut thousands of positions in the global restructuring
Reuters reported on the 12th that according to sources, Swiss drugmaker Novartis will cut thousands of jobs worldwide after announcing last week that it will reorganize its pharmaceutical and oncology business.
Novartis could cut more than 100 jobs at its plants in Rotkreuz and Basel, Switzerland.
A Novartis spokesperson said in an interview with Reuters that the company would improve efficiency through a leaner structure and would "inevitably lead to job losses", but it was too early to give specific figures.
Novartis, which employs about 108,000 people worldwide, said last week that the company was consolidating its pharmaceutical and oncology divisions into an innovative drug (IM) division to streamline its structure, with the goal of saving at least $1 billion by 2024.
The spokesperson said the company expects the new structure to be fully in place and operational by the end of 2022.
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Source: Visual China
Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, opens its first brick-and-mortar unmanned store in the UK
On April 11, 2022, local time, In London, England, Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, opened its first physical unmanned store in the United Kingdom , Amazon Fresh, which is the first physical store to settle in a country outside the United States. Amazon's fresh unmanned supermarket in the United Kingdom is like Amazon Go in the United States, opening the mobile app to enter the store. The store's ceiling-mounted monitor and checkout machine will identify what items the customer has taken or put back, and after the customer leaves, the system will use the credit card that the customer has logged into the profile to check out. Amazon's fresh supermarket is much smaller than the average supermarket, but it has a complete range of projects, not only serving meals, selling fresh groceries and Amazon's electronic goods, but also has a counter for pick-up or online returns.
(This article is compiled from Kyodo News Agency, Liana Zaobao, Reuters, Nihon Keizai Shimbun)
Economic Observation Network intern reporter Zhou Yuqing sorted out