China Wins Most Shipbuilding Orders, Chinese Balloons Spark Global Worries

Arjun Pandit
09 Feb, 2023
Mumbai

Asian markets closed mixed and benchmark indexes in China and India advanced but In Japan closed nearly unchanged. 

Market indexes in Japan recovered losses of the day and closed nearly unchanged and the yen weakened. 

The Nikkei 225 index fell 22.11 points to 27,584.35 and the yen weakened to 131.57 against the U.S. dollar. 

Stocks in Shanghai and Hong Kong advanced after domestic banks revised 2023 economic growth projections higher on the hopes of a faster recovery in consumer spending. 

Despite the ending of "Zero-Covid" restrictions and lockdowns, hospitals and emergency clinics are overburdened and crowded with the steady flow of elderly patients in Shanghai and Beijing and several other large metro areas. 

Small businesses are also closing down at a rapid pace ahead of the expected increase in rents and little or no support from banks and local governments. 

Investors overlooked tough comments delivered by the U.S. President Joe Biden during the State of the Union. 

U.S. President Biden said that the nation would act if China would threaten its sovereignty following the alleged Chinese balloon incident. 

U.S. officials said Chinese spy balloon was capable of monitoring U.S. communications and the defense officials "recently" concluded that China uses balloons for global spying.   

Another alleged spy balloon was spotted over Latin America on Monday and Chinese balloons have been tracked over five continents forming a part of vast aerial surveillance, the U.S. officials said. 

Chinese officials refuted the U.S. allegations and said these balloons are for civilian purposes. 

 

China Wins Largest Share of Smaller Shipbuilding Orders 

China won the largest number of new shipbuilding orders in January but the orders plunged from a year ago, according to data released by Clarkson Research, the UK-based shipping market analysis company. 

China won 40 ship building orders for 1.1 million compensated gross tonnage of the total global 72 orders for 1.96 CGT in January.   

South Korea, the distant second, won 12 orders for 0.64 CGT but attracted technologically more complex jobs.  

Overall orders were down 63% from a year ago and fell 22% from December after interest rates advanced and the global economic backdrop weakened. 

The Shanghai Composite index increased 1% to 3,270.38 and the Hang Seng Index added 1.6% to 21,624.36. 

The Indian rupee weakened to 82.48 against the U.S. dollar. 

The Sensex Index increased 0.2% or 142.43 points and the Nifty index added 0.1% or 21.75 points to 17,893.45.