Wind power industry
Wood Mackenzie: downward revision of global new wind power installations forecast to 73GW in 2020
Wood Mackenzie released its latest research report, "Global Wind Power Market Outlook: Q1 2020," predicting that the COVID-19 crisis will cause a downward revision of global new wind power installations to 73GW in 2020, a decrease of 4.9GW from the previous quarter's forecast.
Wood Mackenzie believes that the global situation in 2020 will have the most significant impact on new installations in China and the United States. Before the epidemic, it was predicted that the expiration of wind power subsidies in China and the United States would lead to a record high in new capacity.

Current main situation:
In the coming weeks, the resumption of work and production in the Chinese market will steadily progress, and the supply chain will gradually return to normal. The supply chain in the Asia-Pacific region (mainly the Indian market) is still operating normally, and there has been no large-scale supply disruption.
The US market supply and EPC are operating normally. Individual projects may be affected by confirmed cases (license delays, construction worker strikes, etc.).
The EU supply has been severely impacted, especially in Spain and Italy, where lockdowns will continue for some time, and more and more factories are closing due to confirmed cases among employees.
The impact on the offshore wind power industry is relatively small.
The markets with downward revisions mainly include China, Spain, the United States, Norway, and France.
After assessing the situation over the past month, OEMs will focus on second- and third-tier suppliers to meet the demand for major components. The globalization of the wind power supply chain is high, and its diversification is higher than that of the photovoltaic supply chain. After factories closed in China due to the severe epidemic, the main supply to the Western market came from mature supply lines in India, Brazil, Mexico, and other major production centers.
Currently, the epidemic situation in China is under control. Supply disruptions have occurred in Western Europe, and the supply of wind turbine blades and other major components exported from China to the United States is twice that of Spain.
The closure of European factories may lead to delays in the installation of wind turbines in Europe and even the United States. In Spain, LM Windpower and SGRE's blade factories are currently shut down for several weeks. Australia has a large number of projects planned for completion in 2020-2021, and most of the equipment is 3.6-4.2MW wind turbine models imported from Europe.
Norway originally planned to accelerate wind power construction in 2020, but due to restrictions on the entry of foreign personnel, it may be difficult to start construction as planned. If the closure of the US/Mexico border is extended, the TPI blade factory supplying the US market will be unable to deliver, which will affect the progress of US projects this year.

The value of wind turbine supply will reach $60 billion in 2028.
Recently, the latest data shows that from 2020 to 2028, the average annual value of wind turbine supply is expected to reach $60 billion, an 8% increase from 2019. Analysis by Wood Mackenzie shows that the higher average wind turbine price and 20% growth in offshore wind power demand reflect a 37% increase in supply chain potential.
Among them, strategic capital components such as wind turbine blades and towers account for $25 billion. Although the outlook for the wind turbine supply chain is good over the next 10 years, the COVID-19 epidemic has created short-term obstacles for the industry. It is expected that by 2020, a total of more than 44GW of peak wind power demand in the United States and China will put pressure on the wind power supply chain.
Wood Mackenzie's chief analyst said that the surge in installation activities has led to shortages of blades and bearings. COVID-19 has jeopardized about 10-15% of production in China, Spain, and Italy. However, Chinese companies resumed production in early March, resulting in a decrease of only 3GW in installed capacity in 2020.
He added that as of the first quarter of 2020, more than $6 billion worth of wind turbine and component supply production has been threatened. The situation will worsen if facility production continues to face delays. Wind turbine OEMs and suppliers can mitigate this impact by increasing production in the second half of this year and shifting supply to other markets such as India and Mexico.
According to Wood Mackenzie's report, the phase-out of US PTC after 2020 will stimulate the demand for nearly 5,000 wind towers in 2020, forcing wind turbine OEMs to increase imports of US wind towers regardless of anti-dumping duties. The consulting firm said that over the past six years, the total value of wind towers imported by the United States from Canada, Indonesia, South Korea, and Vietnam has exceeded $900 million. The surge in demand will force wind turbine OEMs to continue importing into the United States, resulting in an additional $60 million to $90 million in import tariffs by 2020.

Steel
Price trend of Shanghai nickel futures
From March 13, 2020, to April 17, 2020, the nickel price generally showed a rebound after hitting bottom, with the highest price at 101,510 yuan/ton and the lowest price at 89,550 yuan/ton. Taking the end of March and the beginning of April as a watershed, the downward trend was obvious in the middle and lower ten days of March, reaching the recent bottom line at the end of the month, and gradually rebounding in early April. Both the decline and rebound in prices were slow and steady, with no signs of sharp falls or rises.
Statistics of national steel production data in March 2020
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in March 2020, China's average daily crude steel production was 2.548 million tons, average daily pig iron production was 2.16 million tons, and average daily steel production was 3.19 million tons.
In March 2020, China's pig iron production was 66.97 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 1.1%; from January to March, pig iron production was 199.74 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 2.4%.
In March 2020, China's crude steel production was 78.98 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 1.7%; from January to March, crude steel production was 234.45 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%.
In March 2020, China's steel production was 98.88 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 0.1%; from January to March, steel production was 267.42 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 1.6%.
March Steel PMI shows: market supply and demand have increased, and industry operation is recovering
The steel PMI in March was 42.2%, up 5.6 percentage points from the previous month, indicating a recovery in the steel industry, which was significantly affected by the COVID-19 epidemic in the early stages. The sub-indexes show that steel market demand has recovered this month, enterprise production has tended to recover, raw material supply has increased, finished product inventory has decreased, and market expectations have improved. It is worth noting that current foreign demand has significantly decreased, bringing great pressure to China's steel exports. To sum up, in February, affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, the steel market operation slowed down, supply and demand shrank, prices fell, inventories were high, and corporate profits declined. Entering March, the epidemic was gradually brought under control, the vitality of the steel market was released, both supply and demand increased, industry operation tended to recover, finished product inventory decreased, product prices fluctuated and rebounded, and market expectations also tended to improve.

Six categories of steel will be subject to key supervision this year
To implement the requirements of the "Quality Development Outline (2011-2020)" regarding the "formulation and implementation of a national catalog of key regulated products," the State Administration for Market Regulation, based on the experience gained from implementing the "National Catalog of Key Industrial Product Quality and Safety Supervision (2019 Edition)", comprehensively analyzed data from supervisory inspections, production licenses, risk monitoring, law enforcement crackdowns, domestic recall reports, and online public opinion reports, and after soliciting opinions from relevant units, carefully analyzed and studied new problems reflected in the epidemic prevention work, adhered to a problem-oriented approach, focused on industrial products with low supervisory inspection pass rates, prominent problems reflected in various aspects, and those involving major quality and safety issues or key supervision requirements of relevant national policy documents, formulated the "National Catalog of Key Industrial Product Quality and Safety Supervision (2020 Edition)", which will implement key supervision of 13 categories and 269 types of industrial products, including hot-rolled ribbed steel bars for reinforced concrete, hot-rolled plain steel bars, cold-rolled ribbed steel bars, steel for prestressed concrete, bearing steel, and steel wire ropes.

Composite Materials
The European Composites Industry Association adds new glass fiber data to its eco-impact calculator
The European Composites Industry Association announced that it has added new data on glass fiber to its eco-impact calculator, an online tool that enables composites companies to calculate the environmental impact associated with their product production.
The eco-impact calculator is a user-friendly, complete Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool, freely accessible on the European Composites Industry Association website. The tool is regularly updated to incorporate the latest advances in composite materials and processing technologies. The new glass fiber data follows the announcement in February of new data for carbon fiber, reflecting the European Composites Industry Association's ongoing efforts to meet the evolving needs of the industry.
The Brussels-based European Glass Fiber Producers Association has compiled a new, peer-reviewed LCA dataset for glass fiber products based on the latest industry production practices. This dataset, which includes rovings and direct rovings, dry short chopped strands, and for the first time includes glass fiber felt products, has been entered into the ecoinvent database.
The President of the European Composites Industry Association stated that the European Composites Industry Association firmly believes that sustainability and the circular economy are key to the future development of the composites industry. Glass fiber is the most widely used reinforcing material in composites, and this valuable new data from the European Glass Fiber Producers Association represents the latest technological level of the glass fiber industry. The eco-calculator is a 'dynamic' tool, and as new and improved technologies enter the market, it will continue to review and add to the database.
Customers across various industries are increasingly demanding detailed information on the environmental impact of composite products and components. The eco-calculator can calculate the complete environmental impact of a product. Users can use the tool without in-depth knowledge of LCA technology and can export the data in the form of an "eco-report" for complete life cycle calculations.
The eco-calculator is based on data collected by the European Composites Industry Association over the past four years, combining a set of predefined materials and processes. Users can also enter their own data to generate more accurate results for their respective products and processes.

International Standard Project Proposal for "Full-Section Compression Test of FRP Pultruded Profiles" Officially Approved
Recently, the international standard project proposal "ISO/NP23930 Fiber Reinforced Plastics - Full-Section Compression Test of FRP Pultruded Profiles" proposed by Professor Feng Peng of Tsinghua University, China, has been officially approved. This is the first international standard project in the field of composite materials proposed and led by China.
FRP pultruded profiles are products formed by continuously pulling fiber-reinforced materials and thermosetting resin matrices from a heated mold of a defined geometry and curing them. They are important structural products in the manufacturing of composite components and the construction of composite structures. This continuous production process uses longitudinal and transverse fiber reinforcement, resulting in high production efficiency and stable performance, bringing great convenience and flexibility to the design and manufacturing of composite engineering.
The design load-carrying capacity of FRP pultruded profiles is determined by material properties and cross-sectional geometric parameters. Through the design of these parameters, structural and load-carrying capacity design can be performed on components under coupled loads. The purpose of this test method is to propose a test method that comprehensively reflects the cross-sectional performance of pultruded profiles. Due to the anisotropy and non-uniformity of FRP pultruded profiles, the distribution of fibers and resin in the cross-section is not uniform, and the influence of initial defects such as micro-pores and micro-cracks will cause differences in the mechanical properties of different parts in the cross-section. Conventional material property tests cannot consider the non-uniformity of the cross-section and cannot evaluate the performance of the entire cross-section. The results of material tests cannot accurately reflect the load-carrying capacity of the component. In addition, unlike the welded joints of homogeneous steel components, the fracture of the joints of FRP pultruded profiles cannot be predicted through material tests or design equations. Therefore, a full-size cross-section compression test is proposed, focusing on evaluating the equivalent longitudinal compressive strength of pultruded profiles through a short column specimen full-section compression test to assess the equivalent performance of the entire cross-section, including components and connectors, and to provide support for future research on determining the overall and local buckling critical stress of full-section tests.
This test method was proposed based on extensive experimental research and theoretical analysis by Tsinghua University and other units, and has been adopted in the national standard "GB/T 31539 Structural Fiber Reinforced Composite Pultruded Profiles" and the CECS standard "Technical Regulations for Composite Pultruded Profile Structures." Its promotion to the ISO international standard fully reflects the improvement of China's strength in the field of composite materials technology and marks the beginning of China's leading role.

Logistics
China's Logistics Industry Prosperity Index in March was 51.5%
In March, China's Logistics Industry Prosperity Index was 51.5%, up 25.3 percentage points from the previous month; China's warehousing index was 52.7%, up 13.7 percentage points from the previous month. In March, with the implementation of a series of policies to coordinate epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, the situation of COVID-19 prevention and control in China has significantly improved, the orderly resumption of work and production by enterprises has accelerated, market demand has been continuously released, and the logistics industry prosperity index has significantly rebounded.
The First Joint Logistics Blockchain Laboratory Established to Promote the Intelligent Development of Logistics
The National Engineering Laboratory for Logistics Information Interconnection and Sharing Technology and Application and ShuTu Industry Blockchain signed a deep cooperation agreement at the Smart Logistics Innovation Workshop in Shanghai Huaxin, and announced the establishment of a joint logistics blockchain laboratory.
Both parties will be based in the Shanghai (Huaxin) trade-type national logistics hub to jointly build the first joint logistics blockchain laboratory, comprehensively promoting the application research of blockchain technology in the logistics supply chain industry and the cultivation of new technology talents.
Next, the National Engineering Laboratory for Logistics Information and ShuTu Industry Blockchain will leverage the technology transformation capabilities and international R&D team advantages of both parties in the fields of blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things, to deeply cultivate the logistics supply chain industry, and empower business scenarios and applications in new technologies, e-commerce, logistics and express delivery, supply chain, and finance.

Real Estate Production
Real estate sales of top 100 companies dropped by about 20% in Q1, with a strong rebound in March
According to the latest data from the China Index Academy, affected by the epidemic, the overall sales of the top 100 real estate companies in the first quarter decreased by 19.5%, but the data in March showed a strong rebound, with the average month-on-month growth rate of sales reaching 318.9%, among which the average month-on-month growth rate of the top 10 real estate companies was 107.2%. Many market institutions predict that the performance of real estate companies in the second quarter will return to the pre-epidemic level.
Among the leading real estate companies, Country Garden, Vanke, and Evergrande's sales all exceeded 100 billion yuan, with an average sales of 1424.3 billion yuan.
Previously, the president of Vanke said at the company's 2019 performance briefing that Vanke's sales in February and March decreased by about 51 billion yuan compared with the same period last year. But he also said that a full-year sales decline is unlikely.
From the data, real estate sales in March did rebound strongly. Data from CRIC shows that in March 2020, the top 100 real estate companies achieved a total sales of 769 billion yuan, although it decreased by 17% year-on-year, it increased significantly by 136.2% month-on-month.
In March, some real estate companies announced their 2020 sales targets while disclosing their financial reports. According to statistics, the average growth rate of real estate sales targets is 12.2%, and the sales targets are set cautiously under the impact of the epidemic. For example, companies such as Evergrande, China Overseas Land & Investment, and China Resources, based on a high base, fully considered the pressure on the market side, and set the sales target growth rate for 2020 to a single digit. With the improvement of the epidemic prevention and control situation, real estate companies have pressed the "fast forward" button for offline resumption of work and production, and it is expected that the performance of real estate companies in the second quarter will return to the pre-epidemic level.
The land market also reflects the above trend. The latest data released by Shanghai E-House Real Estate Research Institute shows that although the land transaction in 100 cities fell by 20% in the first quarter, and the transaction data is temporarily difficult to turn positive, some cities have recently seen a phenomenon of land grabbing.

National Real Estate Development Investment and Sales Situation in January-March 2020
The "National Real Estate Development Investment and Sales Situation in January-March 2020" released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that from January to March, the national real estate development investment was 2196.3 billion yuan, down 7.7% year-on-year, with the decline narrowing by 8.6 percentage points compared with January-February; the sales area of commercial houses was 219.78 million square meters, down 26.3% year-on-year, with the decline narrowing by 13.6 percentage points compared with January-February; the sales of commercial houses was 2036.5 billion yuan, down 24.7%, with the decline narrowing by 11.2 percentage points compared with January-February.
National real estate development investment decreased by 7.7% year-on-year
From January to March, the national real estate development investment was 2196.3 billion yuan, down 7.7% year-on-year, with the decline narrowing by 8.6 percentage points compared with January-February. Among them, residential investment was 1601.5 billion yuan, down 7.2%, with the decline narrowing by 8.8 percentage points.
From January to March, the area of land purchased by real estate development enterprises was 19.69 million square meters, down 22.6% year-on-year, with the decline narrowing by 6.7 percentage points compared with January-February; the land transaction price was 97.7 billion yuan, down 18.1%, with the decline narrowing by 18.1 percentage points.
From January to March, the funds in place for real estate development enterprises were 3356.6 billion yuan, down 13.8% year-on-year, with the decline narrowing by 3.7 percentage points compared with January-February. Among them, domestic loans were 671.6 billion yuan, down 5.9%; foreign investment utilization was 1.9 billion yuan, down 42.5%; self-raised funds were 1075.5 billion yuan, down 8.8%; deposits and pre-receipts were 954.2 billion yuan, down 22.4%; and personal mortgage loans were 522.8 billion yuan, down 7.4%.
In March, the real estate development prosperity index was 98.18, an increase of 0.78 points compared with February.
The decline in commercial housing sales narrowed, and a significant increase was seen in a single month
From January to March, the sales area of commercial houses was 219.78 million square meters, down 26.3% year-on-year, with the decline narrowing by 13.6 percentage points compared with January-February. Among them, the sales area of residential houses decreased by 25.9%, the sales area of office buildings decreased by 36.2%, and the sales area of commercial buildings decreased by 35.1%. The sales of commercial houses was 2036.5 billion yuan, down 24.7%, with the decline narrowing by 11.2 percentage points compared with January-February. Among them, the sales of residential houses decreased by 22.8%, the sales of office buildings decreased by 36.8%, and the sales of commercial buildings decreased by 39.8%.
At the end of March, the unsold area of commercial houses was 527.27 million square meters, a decrease of 2.78 million square meters compared with the end of February. Among them, the unsold area of residential houses decreased by 4.4 million square meters, the unsold area of office buildings increased by 0.21 million square meters, and the unsold area of commercial buildings increased by 1.68 million square meters.

Intelligent Manufacturing
Analysis of the Current Situation and Trends of China's Intelligent Manufacturing Industry in 2020
China's intelligent manufacturing industry demonstrates its development strength during the COVID-19 epidemic
The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 brought a shock to social production and life, and most enterprises also postponed the resumption of work and production due to health and safety considerations. Under this circumstance, the intelligent manufacturing industry, which relies on high-tech development, has shown its strong strength during the epidemic, assisting social production and epidemic prevention in many ways through unmanned and intelligent technological support and product systems, and its development potential has also been affirmed by the central government.

Policies are favorable to the development of the intelligent manufacturing industry
With the disappearance of the demographic dividend and the rising cost of manufacturing, the state has issued many policies in recent years to support the intelligent transformation of manufacturing. During the epidemic, the state also successively issued relevant documents clarifying its support for key industries such as intelligent manufacturing.
The intelligent manufacturing industry has become a focus of capital attention
Investment in the intelligent manufacturing industry has continued to rise from 2014 to 2018, and the investment amount in 2017-2019 has exceeded 30 billion yuan. China's planning and policies on intelligent manufacturing since 2015 have made the capital market pay more attention to the development potential of intelligent manufacturing, and the investment enthusiasm has increased.
China's intelligent hardware will enter the trillion-yuan market in 2020
China's intelligent hardware market is developing rapidly, and the market size in 2020 is expected to reach 1076.7 billion yuan. The development of the intelligent manufacturing industry is gradually maturing, relying on various basic technological support and application scenario expansion, intelligent hardware has become an important consumer category.

Analysis of future development trends of intelligent manufacturing
1. Intelligent manufacturing has received more attention during the epidemic
Intelligent manufacturing has been exposed from multiple perspectives during the epidemic, such as intelligent production, cloud services, and intelligent robots, allowing the public to better understand intelligent manufacturing. The deeds of the intelligent manufacturing industry actively assuming social responsibility during the epidemic have also won social recognition and goodwill.
2. The transformation and development of "Made in China" will be accelerated
The strong vitality shown by intelligent manufacturing during the epidemic will accelerate the development of "Made in China" to "Intelligent Manufacturing in China".
3. Steady development of intelligent manufacturing in China

In recent years, the country has issued many favorable policies for intelligent manufacturing, and intelligent manufacturing has also achieved good results during the epidemic prevention and control period. However, China's intelligent manufacturing development level still has a certain gap with countries such as Germany and Japan, and it cannot be caught up in a short time. China's intelligent manufacturing will achieve a gradual and stable and good development with the help of a series of policies such as "Made in China 2025" and "New Infrastructure."
Global robot market heats up. In 2021, the scale of China's industrial robot market will exceed US\$7 billion.
With the disappearance of China's demographic dividend, robots are not only replacing workers in manufacturing, but will also replace humans in military, service, and entertainment fields. "Iron Man" no longer only exists in American science fiction films, but is entering our lives.
I. Global Robot Market: Industrial robots account for 54%
In 2019, the global robot market reached US\$29.41 billion, of which industrial robots accounted for US\$15.92 billion, accounting for 54% of the robot market share; service robots accounted for US\$9.46 billion, accounting for 32% of the robot market share; and special robots accounted for US\$4.03 billion, accounting for 14% of the robot market share.
II. Global Service Robot Market: Household service robots account for 45%
According to data released by IFR: In 2019, the global market size of household service robots, medical service robots, and public service robots was US\$4.2 billion, US\$2.58 billion, and US\$2.68 billion respectively. Among them, the market share of household service robots was 18 and 17 percentage points higher than that of medical service robots and public service robots respectively.
III. China's Robot Market: Industrial robots account for 66%
In 2019, the market size of China's robot industry reached US\$8.68 billion, of which industrial robots accounted for US\$5.73 billion, accounting for 66% of the market share; service robots accounted for US\$2.2 billion, accounting for 25% of the market share; and special robots accounted for US\$0.75 billion, accounting for 9% of the market share.
IV. The scale of China's industrial robot market will exceed US\$7 billion in 2021.
According to IFR statistics, China's industrial robot density reached 97 units/10,000 people in 2017, exceeding the global average. It is expected that China's robot density will exceed 130 units/10,000 people in 2021, reaching the average level of developed countries. In 2019, the scale of China's industrial robot market reached US\$5.73 billion. By 2021, the domestic market scale will further expand, and it is expected to exceed US\$7 billion.
V. The scale of China's service robot market is expected to approach US\$4 billion in 2021.

The market size of China's service robots is expanding rapidly, becoming a highlight in the application of the robot market. With the acceleration of population aging and the continued strong demand for medical and education, China's service robots have huge market potential and development space. By 2021, with the rapid development of robots in emerging application scenarios such as parking robots and supermarket robots, the market size of China's service robots is expected to approach US\$4 billion.