#Supply chains

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said the group plans to build a chip manufacturing plant as soon as possible to meet rising global demand. He cited abundant power and water supply as reasons for the rapid timeline. He forecast that global chip demand will continue to grow rapidly.

A 50-person pig farming equipment company in Foshan, led by Liu Wen, used AI to rewrite its software and generate marketing content, reducing customer acquisition costs from 1,500 yuan to near zero. The company now gets 30 new clients monthly, with new media revenue reaching 200,000-300,000 yuan in March 2025. The broader adoption shows AI's potential in traditional industries despite data and organizational barriers.

The US Navy awarded a US$39.6 million contract on September 28 for three second-hand extended-range King Air 350-series aircraft for the Philippine Coast Guard, two of them modified for improved surveillance. The aircraft will be fitted with extended-range fuel systems and upgraded avionics, giving Manila greater reach and endurance to monitor Chinese coastguard, naval and research vessels across the South China Sea.

Experts recommend the United States replace "wholesale restrictions" on Chinese electric vehicles with targeted safeguards and strategic partnerships. John Helveston, associate professor at George Washington University, said this would prevent US carmakers from losing global market share. The experts spoke during a discussion on Tuesday.

Chinese automakers' registrations in the UK rose to 519,424 vehicles between January and August 2026, capturing 28.1% market share, up from 12.9% in the same period in 2025. The best-selling Jaecoo 7, nicknamed the 'Temu Range Rover,' sold 10,814 units in September. UK Business Minister Jonathan Reynolds is considering matching the EU's up to 35.3% tariff on Chinese EVs to avoid Made in Europe barriers, with China warning of retaliatory measures.

Hong Kong-based EcoCeres is sourcing China's gutter oil from restaurants across the Greater Bay Area to produce sustainable aviation fuel. Once a notorious food safety scandal, recycled kitchen waste now commands premium pricing as a clean energy feedstock.

BYD is studying whether to manufacture lithium batteries in Argentina, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said after meeting the company's executive vice-president Stella Li. The company is looking at investment opportunities in the lithium value chain, particularly for battery and energy storage production. No investment amount or factory location has been disclosed.

During the October 1-7 National Day holiday, China's highway EV charging sessions totaled 6.711 million times with 163 million kWh consumed, averaging 23.2566 million kWh daily, up 51.42% year-on-year. Separately, IEA member countries agreed to accelerate releasing the remaining 1 billion barrels of oil from their March commitments, with about 325 million barrels already released and around 1.1 billion barrels in strategic reserves remaining.

Multiple energy storage fire and explosion incidents occurred in 2026, including a 21.6MW solar-storage plant in Prince Edward Island and a facility in Southern California. Envision completed a 64MWh station-level fire test—the largest in the industry—with flames burning for 9 hours before self-extinguishing, while adjacent cabinet cell temperatures stayed below 50°C.

Shenzhen Huaqiangbei merchants reported memory module prices climbing more than 300% year-over-year as of October 2026, with DDR4 (16GB) rising from over 100 yuan to over 600 yuan and DDR5 (16GB) from over 200 yuan to over 1,400 yuan. AI servers consuming 8-10x more memory than standard servers have absorbed about 70% of advanced storage capacity, prompting Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron to shift production toward higher-margin HBM, cutting consumer-grade supply.

Anta Group completed a €1.5055 billion cash acquisition of 29.06% of Puma, becoming the German sports brand's largest shareholder. Anta will seek seats on Puma's supervisory board but has no plans to launch a tender offer. The deal differs from Anta's previous controlling acquisitions of FILA and Amer; here Anta lacks board control and must work through minority equity, supervisory board representation and shareholder agreements to export synergies.

Hurricane Isaias is heading toward the US Gulf Coast, home to about 14% of American refining capacity. Shell, Chevron and BP have evacuated personnel and curtailed production, with roughly 1.3 million bpd of oil output shut in. Experts warn the storm strikes at the worst time in 25 years, with fuel inventories at seasonal lows and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at its lowest since 1982.

According to Analysys data, Tencent's WorkBuddy reached 20.97 million monthly visits in June 2026, surpassing ByteDance's TRAE IDE (12.79M) and Alibaba's Qoder Work (7.88M) combined. WorkBuddy connects with WeChat, QQ, Enterprise WeChat and Telegram, allowing users to issue commands on mobile that execute on desktop with results pushed back via WeChat. The platform aims to become an "operating system for the Agent era" and has opened its ecosystem to over 100 partners.

This newsletter covers three key developments: (1) EU trade commissioner Šefčovič visits Beijing seeking voluntary hybrid car export curbs, which China has refused, while the PRC proposes a joint monitoring mechanism and price undertakings on EVs; (2) The Xi-Trump meeting yielded limited progress—the US is slowing aircraft-parts exports to China for leverage, and a WSJ report on Xi's need for rest during the visit has leaked, fueling succession speculation ahead of the Fifth Plenum; (3) Yuyuan Tantian outlines PRC's proposed AI/SI dialogue topics: joint risk classification standards, incident notification procedures, and embedding AI governance in broader US-China exchanges.

The Xi-Trump meetings produced a new framework describing US-China relations as a 'constructive strategic stability relationship based on respect, fairness, and reciprocity.' The two-month tariff extension pushes the November 10 deadline to January 10, 2027. The State Council executive meeting signaled potential Q4 stimulus including property market stabilization policies. Questions remain about whether Nvidia will receive licenses for more AI chips to China.