Eastmoney Financial Breakfast Wednesday, March 4

Daily Highlights

National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) to Convene Soon:

The press conference for the 4th session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee began at 3 p.m. on the 3rd. Spokesperson Liu Jianyuan introduced relevant details and answered questions from Chinese and foreign media. Liu stated that the 4th session of the 14th CPPCC will open at 3 p.m. on March 4 at the Great Hall of the People and will close on the morning of March 11, with a duration of 7 days.

Wang Yi Holds Phone Call with Israeli Foreign Minister:

Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister, held a phone call with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on the 3rd. After hearing Lapid’s briefing on Israel’s stance on the current situation, Wang Yi said that China consistently advocates resolving international and regional hotspots through dialogue and consultation. All parties should abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, refrain from using or threatening to use force in international relations, which aligns with the fundamental interests of all involved, including Israel. China calls for an immediate halt to military actions to prevent further escalation of the conflict.

Foreign Ministry Response:

On March 3, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning held a routine press conference. A Bloomberg reporter asked about reports that China is pressuring Iran not to block the Strait of Hormuz. Mao Ning responded that energy security is vital to the global economy, and all parties have a responsibility to ensure stable and smooth energy supplies. China urges all sides to immediately stop military actions, avoid escalation of tensions, and safeguard the safety of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz to prevent greater impacts on the global economy.

Saudi Aramco Seeks New Routes:

According to reports, Saudi Aramco is exploring the possibility of exporting oil via the Red Sea to avoid transportation risks in the Strait of Hormuz. The port is located outside the Persian Gulf. Due to the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, dozens of ships are stranded in the Persian Gulf. Sources say Aramco has asked some Asian customers whether they can source crude oil from Yanbu on the Saudi Red Sea coast. One person indicated that the company is consulting shipping companies to verify whether to shift the loading point from the Persian Gulf to Yanbu.

European Natural Gas Prices Continue to Surge:

On March 3, local time, European natural gas prices surged sharply amid escalating tensions in the Middle East. Following attacks by the US and Israel in the region, the Strait of Hormuz was officially closed, and Qatar’s LNG exports have completely halted. Markets reacted to these threats to a key global energy trade route. As of 8:54 a.m. Central European Time, April delivery Dutch TTF natural gas futures soared 29.9% to €57.840 per MWh. UK natural gas futures for the same month also rose significantly by 33.92%, to 147.430 pence per therm.

BeiVei Storage Sees Significant Growth:

BeiVei Storage announced that it expects revenue of 4 to 4.5 billion yuan in January-February 2026, a year-on-year increase of 340% to 395%. Net profit attributable to shareholders is projected to be 1.5 to 1.8 billion yuan, turning profitable from loss last year. The storage industry is entering a high boom cycle in 2026, driven by AI computing power and domestic substitution, with continuous rises in DRAM/NAND prices and significant industry demand.

Jordan Reopens Airspace:

On March 3, Jordan’s civil aviation authority announced that after a comprehensive assessment of current regional security and operational conditions, Jordan has decided to reopen its airspace and resume all civil flights, lifting some temporary restrictions imposed since the evening of the 2nd. The chairman of the Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission said the decision was made after coordination with relevant departments and thorough risk assessments, fully complying with international civil aviation safety and security standards.

Shanghai Petroleum & Natural Gas Exchange Announcement:

Effective from March 4, 2026 (night trading on March 3), the trading limits for non-futures company members, overseas special non-broker participants, and clients for listed futures contracts in crude oil, low-sulfur fuel oil, and container shipping indices (European line) are adjusted as follows: Maximum daily open position for crude oil futures is 1,200 lots; for low-sulfur fuel oil futures, 6,000 lots; for container shipping index (European line) futures, 50 lots.

Hot Topics

Oil:

According to media reports, Iraq has begun shutting down Rumaila oil field due to full storage facilities. Iraq has also cut crude oil production at West Qurna-2 by 450,000 barrels per day.

Power Grid Equipment:

According to The Information, over the past few months, the three major US regional grid operators have approved a total of $75 billion for transmission expansion projects, mainly involving the construction of ultra-high-voltage lines at 765 kV—the highest operational voltage in the US, with transmission capacity six times that of traditional lines. If successful, this will create the largest and most powerful power transmission network in US history.

Shipping:

The Baltic Exchange reports that due to Middle East conflicts, tanker freight rates have surged to record highs, with benchmark VLCC daily earnings reaching $424,000. StealthGas CEO Harry Vafias predicts VLCC daily charter rates could reach $500,000, a 100-150% increase from previous rates of around $200,000 per day.

Perovskite Solar Cells:

Recently, a team from the National Key Laboratory of Solar Energy Conversion and Utilization at Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Processes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, achieved a significant breakthrough in interface engineering of perovskite solar cells. They pioneered the “solvent-based crystal pre-seeding” strategy, bringing new hope for high-efficiency, scalable production of perovskite photovoltaic modules. The results were published in Nature—Synthesis.

Computing Power:

During MWC 2026 in Barcelona, Huawei ICT BG CEO Yang Chao-bin stated that AI is accelerating, with the global daily token consumption increasing nearly 300 times over the past two years; over 30 million AI agents are now collaborating worldwide. This brings unprecedented opportunities to the mobile industry and demands new network capabilities.

AI Smartphones:

According to media reports, at MWC 2026, ZTE showcased multiple AI smartphones, highlighting advanced capabilities achieved through deep integration of AI agents and operating systems, including the Nubia M153 with a preview version of the Doubao mobile assistant, and the flagship Nubia Z80 Ultra with the Jiēyuè Star GUI Agent.

Photovoltaic Equipment:

On March 3, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and five other departments issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Comprehensive Utilization of Photovoltaic Modules, encouraging industry companies to participate in manufacturing champion projects, specialized and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, and high-tech enterprises. The policy aims to leverage national industry-finance cooperation platforms to guide financial institutions to provide credit support for green technological upgrades and recycling of waste photovoltaic modules.

PCB:

Japanese electronics materials giant Mitsubishi Gas Chemical recently announced a price increase for electronic materials, including CCL (copper-clad laminate), Prepreg (resin substrate), and CRS (copper foil resin sheet), with a rise of up to 30%, effective from April 1, 2026.

Company News

Industrial Fulian: As of February 28, 2026, the company had repurchased 11.1749 million shares through centralized bidding on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, accounting for 0.06% of total share capital. The highest purchase price was RMB 63.40 per share, the lowest RMB 18.40, totaling RMB 347 million.

Jinrui Mining: The strontium carbonate production line has resumed operation. Equipment maintenance for metallic strontium and alloy systems is nearing completion, and full production is expected soon.

Xinjing Power: Recently, due to international geopolitical changes, crude oil and natural gas prices are expected to rise. The company’s oil and gas extraction and sales account for less than 10% of total revenue, so the impact on overall performance is limited.

Zhunyou Co.: Most of the company’s revenue currently comes from domestic oilfield technical services. The company and its subsidiaries do not have oil and gas production or overseas operations. The main equipment used in oil services primarily runs on gasoline and diesel, so rising fuel prices will increase operating costs.

CNOOC Shipping: Due to Middle East tensions, some of the company’s oil tankers operating in the Persian Gulf face safety risks. However, the overall impact on the company’s operations is expected to be manageable, with both challenges and opportunities.

Tongding Interconnection: The company notes increased market attention to fiber optic products for data centers. As of December 2025, the proportion of fiber optic products for data centers is small, and their impact on future performance is uncertain. The company is not engaged in CPO-related businesses; investors should be aware of risks.

Haimer Technology: If tensions in the Middle East persist or expand to other major oil and gas resource countries, it could adversely affect the company’s local operations and overall performance.

Xianfeng Jingke: The company plans to issue convertible bonds raising no more than RMB 750 million (including), with proceeds mainly allocated to expanding core process metal device projects in semiconductors, R&D and production of non-metallic materials and devices for advanced semiconductor processes, ceramic electrostatic chucks for semiconductor equipment, and working capital.

Zhongmu Co.: The company intends to acquire 51% of Hebei Shengxue Dacheng Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and 72.7272% of Inner Mongolia Shengxue Dacheng held by China Nuclear Uranium Industry, at a total transaction price of RMB 727 million.

Orient Securities: Recently received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to publicly issue up to RMB 6 billion in tech innovation corporate bonds.

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Global Markets

Iran Situation: According to CCTV News, earlier on March 3, a specialist conference building in Qom, Iran, was attacked.

Google AI Model: Google announced that on March 1, Flash Lite is priced at $0.25 per 1 million input tokens and $1.50 per 1 million output tokens. Starting immediately, Flash Lite 3.1 will be available in preview via Gemini API in Google AI Studio for developers and via Vertex AI for enterprise clients.

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Bond Market Overview

Shibor: On March 3, the overnight Shibor was 1.2670%, down 4.80 basis points; 7-day Shibor was 1.4480%, down 1.80 basis points; 14-day was 1.4980%, down 1.60 basis points; 1-month was 1.5500%, unchanged; March was 1.5650%, down 0.28 basis points.

Euro Bonds: At the close of European trading, Germany’s 10-year government bond yield rose 4.0 basis points to 2.752%, trading between 2.742% and 2.814%. Since February 3, the yield has rebounded by 10.8 basis points after previous declines. The 2-year German bond yield increased 6.6 basis points to 2.155%. The 30-year yield rose 2.9 basis points to 3.386%. The spread between 2- and 10-year bonds narrowed by 2.516 basis points to +59.485 basis points. UK 10-year gilt yields rose 9.7 basis points to 4.471%. The 2-year gilt yield increased by 9.7 basis points to 3.734%, stabilizing around 3.75%. The 30-year gilt yield rose 9.0 basis points to 5.174%, and the 50-year yield increased by 8.5 basis points to 4.761%. The 2/10-year spread remained roughly unchanged at +73.386 basis points. France’s 10-year government bond yield increased 11.3 basis points to 3.403%, reaching 3.437% at 19:22 Beijing time, rebounding 18.1 basis points over two days, breaking the downward trend since December 22, 2025. The 2-year French yield rose 10.1 basis points to 2.312%. The 30-year French yield increased 7.6 basis points to 4.297%. Italy’s 10-year bond yield rose 11.5 basis points to 3.471%. Spain’s 10-year yield increased 7.9 basis points to 3.214%. Greece’s 10-year yield rose 9.7 basis points to 3.454%.

US Bonds: At New York close, the 10-year US Treasury yield rose 2.30 basis points to 4.0575%. Since early Asia-Pacific trading, it has remained above 4.08%, reaching a high of 4.1151 at 22:16. The 2-year Treasury yield increased 3.29 basis points to 3.4999%. The 30-year yield rose 2.33 basis points to 4.7029%. The 2/10-year spread narrowed by 0.177 basis points to +55.551 basis points. The 10-year TIPS yield increased 2.06 basis points to 1.7554%. The 2-year TIPS yield rose 2.23 basis points to 0.6028%. The 30-year TIPS yield increased 2.44 basis points to 2.4808%.

Commodity Futures

Domestic Futures: On March 3, most domestic commodity futures closed higher. The energy sector saw a surge with limits on container shipping (European line), fuel oil, crude oil, methanol, liquefied gas, plastics, polypropylene, and ethylene glycol. Toluene, styrene, asphalt, apples, and coking coal rose over 4%. PTA, short fiber, and bottle chips increased over 3%. Lithium carbonate and tin hit the daily limit down. Silver fell over 9%, platinum over 8%, palladium over 6%, nickel and polysilicon over 3%, rubber, copper, and industrial silicon declined over 1%.

International Metals: LME copper fell $153 to $12,955/ton. Aluminum rose $56 to $3,251/ton. Zinc declined $48 to $3,270/ton. Lead fell $26 to $1,936/ton. Nickel dropped $40 to $17,120/ton. Tin plunged $4,842 (about 9.02%) to $48,843/ton, with a two-day decline of 15.39%. Cobalt remained unchanged at $56,290/ton.

International Agricultural Products: NY Bloomberg grain index rose 0.22% to 30.7474 points. CBOT corn futures increased 0.11%. CBOT wheat futures fell 0.40%. CBOT soybeans rose 0.64% to $11.7150 per bushel. Soymeal futures up 0.74%, soybean oil up 0.32%. CBOT lean hogs rose 0.21%, live cattle up 0.32%, feeder cattle down 0.01%. ICE raw sugar futures up 0.29%, white sugar up 0.36%. Arabica coffee futures down 0.62%, “C” coffee futures down 0.74%. Robusta coffee futures down 1.94%. NY cocoa futures up 0.03% to $3,022/ton, fluctuating near the $3,000 psychological level since Feb 19. Chicago WCE canola futures up 1.07%. ICE cotton futures down 0.67%.

Forex Market

Renminbi: On March 3, onshore RMB closed at 6.89970 at 16:30 Beijing time, down 142 points. Offshore RMB at 18:00 was 6.90503, down 226 points. The onshore/offshore RMB spread at 18:00 was -57.3.

RMB Foreign Exchange Swaps: As of 16:30 Beijing time on March 3, USD/CNY 6-month swap was -760 points; 1-year swap was -1,357 points.

US Dollar: The US dollar index rose on March 3, up 0.67% to 99.046 at market close. At NY close, EUR/USD was 1.1603 (below 1.1707), GBP/USD was 1.3334 (below 1.3422). USD/JPY was 157.76 (above 157.23). USD/CHF was 0.7822 (above 0.7784). USD/CAD was 1.3667 (below 1.3673). USD/SEK was 9.2882 (above 9.1347).