On September 20, the central price of the RMB was 7.0644, up 339 points, appreciating to the highest since May 29, 2023, and the largest increase since March 20, 2023! The midprice last traded at 7.0983. Markets cheered after the Federal Reserve this week cut interest rates for the first time in nearly four and a half years. On Thursday, the S&P 500 index hit another record high, indicating that the Fed's decision gave the market a big confidence boost. For Wall Street, in addition to the surprise of a 50 basis point rate cut, the Fed's dot plot also gave them a positive signal.

According to a new analysis by Alphaliner, the Port of Singapore, the world's largest transit hub, is one of the clear winners in the upcoming alliance realignment. In February 2025, a new shipping alliance pattern will be formed. THE Ocean Alliance, The Alliance and 2M Alliance will be reorganized into the Gemini Partnership, the Premier Alliance, the independently operated MSC and the unchanged Ocean Alliance, respectively, which will begin to operate a new service network. According to an analysis of the new port rotation plan, the Port of Singapore will receive an additional six call opportunities from operators of Asia-Northern Europe routes.

On September 19, the mid-price of the yuan was 7.0983, down 113 points from 7.0870 in the previous trading day. Agreed! The US Federal Reserve Board ended a two-day monetary policy meeting on the 18th local time, announcing that the target range of the federal funds rate was lowered to 4.75% to 5%, that is, a cut of 50 basis points, which is the first rate cut since 2020. Historically, unless faced with a major economic crisis, the Federal Reserve has rarely cut interest rates by 50 basis points when opening a new rate cut cycle.

In the first half of 2024, the international shipping market experienced unprecedented volatility, which was reflected in the tense situation of "difficult to find one cabin" and the extreme phenomenon of "sky-high freight".

Recently, the trend of the container market has taken a sharp turn for the worse! Asia to Europe in particular, the trans-Pacific routes are not optimistic. In the face of weak demand, shipping companies aggressively cancelled voyages ahead of the Asian Golden Week to cope with the slump in freight rates. Container freight has entered the off-season, the decline further expanded. On September 12, the Delury World Container Rate Index (WCI) composite index declined, dropping 13% week on week to $4,168 per 40-foot container.

On September 18, the mid-price of the yuan (7.0958, -0.0215, -0.30%) was 7.0870, up 160 points, appreciating to the highest since January 2, 2024, and the mid-price of the previous trading day was 7.1030. Wall Street investors are predicting about a 64 percent chance that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by 50 basis points this week. Since late last week, investors in the futures market have raised expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by 50 basis points at this week's meeting, rather than the 25 basis points previously expected. The Federal Reserve is scheduled to hold a monetary policy meeting on the 17th and 18th.

On September 12, according to the website of the Ministry of Finance, the Customs Tariff Commission of The State Council issued a notice to give zero tariff treatment to 100% of the products of the least developed countries, which will be implemented from December 1, 2024. In order to expand unilateral opening-up to the least developed countries and achieve common development, starting from December 1, 2024, a preferential tax rate of zero will be applied to 100 percent of tax items originating from the least developed countries that have diplomatic relations with China. Among them, the tariff quota products only reduce the tariff rate within the quota to zero, and the tariff rate outside the quota is unchanged.

On September 16, a shore bridge collapsed at Yantian Port. It can be clearly observed from the picture that the boom of a crane used for loading and unloading cargo collapsed and unfortunately fell directly on a ship docked in the harbor. The accident also caused a chain reaction, causing some containers loaded on the ship to fall into the water. After the incident, the terminal operator responded quickly and immediately launched a detailed investigation procedure for the involved shore container crane. The damaged container ship, the MSC RIONA, operated by MSC, is 183.87 meters long, 25.33 meters wide and has a maximum container capacity of 1,730 TEU.

On September 12, Shopee announced that from September 23, 2024, its overseas warehouse crossing station compliance function will add the MYWH-SG pick-up point channel (MYWH-SG CP). Through this channel, buyers will enjoy 0 shipping discount without paying shipping fees. The channel is currently equipped with more than 1,000 SPX Express pickup points, which will help drive store conversion rates and sales performance.

On September 13, the central parity rate of the yuan was 7.1030, up 184 points from 7.1214 in the previous trading day. The odds of a Fed rate cut of 50 basis points next week, priced into swaps, rose slightly on media reports that policymakers were considering whether to cut rates by 25 basis points or 50 basis points. The September OIS contract fell about 3 basis points to an intraday low around 5.04 percent, corresponding to a cut of about 28 basis points at the September meeting, toward the midpoint of Wednesday's range. As of Wednesday's close, the corresponding cut was 26 basis points.