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Wednesday, January 8, 2025

'China bets on kitchen appliances to help boost economy'

The Chinese government has expanded a list of products that people can trade in to get a discount of as much as 20% on new products as the country tries to boost its flagging economy.

The list now includes items like microwave ovens, dishwashers, rice cookers and water purifiers.

State-backed trade-in schemes already covered televisions, phones, tablets and smart watches as well as electric and hybrid vehicles.

The world's second largest economy has been facing several challenges, including weak consumer demand and a deepening property crisis.

On Wednesday, officials said 81 billion yuan (£8.9bn; $11bn) had been earmarked this year for the consumer goods trade-in scheme.

China's top economic planning body has said the schemes, which were launched in March, have already produced "visible effects".

According to the country's Ministry of Commerce, the policies have boosted sales of big items items such as home appliances and cars.

But some economists have questioned whether the schemes will be enough to significantly increase consumer consumption.

"The approach has had mixed success so far," said Harry Murphy Cruise, head of China economics at Moody's Analytics.

"While it has supported sales of some listed goods, such as cars and appliances, it hasn't driven an overall uptick in spending."

In recent months, China has been pushing ahead with more measures to support its domestic economy as the country's exporters face growing challenges.

In December, a key meeting of China's leaders stressed the need for "vigorous" efforts to boost consumer spending.

That came as President-elect Donald Trump, who is due to return to the White House this month, threatened to impose a 60% tariff on Chinese-made products.

China is due to announce its 2024 economic growth figures next week, which Beijing has said it expects will be around 5%.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79197jr2zeo

Goldman on CES: Chinese Firms Unveil New AI PCs, Mixed Reality Headsets, EV Tech & Panels

Analysts at Goldman Sachs working on the Greater China Tech Research desk in Hong Kong released a client note Thursday highlighting key product launches and demonstrations by Chinese companies at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025 in Las Vegas.

Goldman's Allen Chang and Verena Jeng focused on 19 Chinese companies attending CES 2025 that released notable products across AI PCs, mixed reality (MR) and AI glasses, EV technology, eVTOLs, gaming PCs and monitors, and AI servers.

Here are the companies and their respective highlights:

From the list, the analysts offered additional insights on launches from select companies, along with their analyst ratings:

AI PC
ASUS (2357.TW, Buy): ASUS launched new Copilot+ PC models including Zenbook A14 (priced from US$899), Vivobook 14/ 16 at CES 2025. The new Zenbook model is based on Snapdragon X Series platform, featuring lighter weight under 1kg with innovative Ceraluminum chassis and over 32 hours battery life. For commercial AI PC, ASUS's ExpertBook P5 was launched in Oct 2024, with self-developed "AI ExpertMeet" for AI translation and AI meeting functions. We expect stronger AI PC ramp up in 2025E on the back of more models with the mainstream chipset platforms (Intel) and software (Copilot+), along with the long battery life and growing generative AI functions.
Lenovo (0992.HK, Buy): The company launched new AI PC models Thinkpad X9 14/ 15 (Aura Editions, priced from US$1,089), and unveiled ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable AI laptop during CES. Thinkpad X9 is Copilot+ PC model supported by Intel Core Ultra platform, and offers Smart Share functions to connect users' smartphones to the laptop instantly through the AI virtual sensors, enabling users to easily edit photos or access to text messages on PC easily. In Dec 2024, Lenovo announced the collaboration with Volcano Engine to adopt Doubao LLM on company's AI PC for AI search, AI writing etc. functions, and launched personal AI assistant Xiaotian to empower multiple user terminals, which has covered 1,500+ applications. We are positive on the new AI PC launch and expanding software/ ecosystem to accelerate company's AI PC penetration.
AI Server
Gigabyte (2376.TW, Buy): Gigabyte showcased multiple AI server solutions at CES 2025, including rack-level AI servers, and AI servers across AMD MI325, NVIDIA HGX, and Intel Gaudi 3 platforms. For cooling solution, the company is due to demonstrate the one-stop liquid cooling solution across CDU, manifolds, and cold plates for AI servers clients. The company also launched new AI PC models AORUS MASTER, GIGABYTE AERO, and GIGABYTE GAMING, empowered by Copilot functions and Gigabyte's new AI agent "GiMate" to enhance the gaming experiences. The company also demonstrated new QD-OLED gaming monitors launched in Jan 2025, highlighting the enhanced Tactical features to bring users better experience in speed, clarity, and reliability.
Automotive Tech
Thundersoft (300496.SZ, Buy): The company highlights AquaDrive OS that integrates smart driving and cockpit domain and company's expansion to smart driving software solution through the JV with Horizon Robotics. Thundersoft recently also introduced new AI smart cockpit empowered by LLM (Large Language Model) from Volcengine (private) to enable AI interaction and image generation functions, showcasing during CES. Besides automotive solution, Thundersoft launched 4 reference designs of Mini PC in Dec 2024 based on Qualcomm Snapdragon X platform to empower new models, supporting 13bn LLM to run on the edge devices.
Black Sesame (2533.HK, not covered): Black Sesame launched Huashan A2000 Series (A2000, A2000 Pro, A2000L) by end of Dec 2024, showcasing the new products at CES 2025 with smart driving functions for car models of different pricing range. The company's new NPU architecture "JiuShao" with its AI tool chains "BaRT", featuring higher efficiency and enhanced performance.
XPeng Aeroht (Private): The company showcased the Land Aircraft Carrier (LAC) during CES 2025, which is a six-wheeled van with a quadcopter drone, featuring 800V SiC platform and 1,000km mileages. The LAC completed the first public flight in Nov at China International Aviation Exhibition. We see growing entrants entering eVTOL and flying vehicles market, which is positive to the ecosystem expansion and future commercialization.
Mixed Reality
HTC (2498.TW, Neutral): The company showcased its VR/ MR headset and VIVE applications during CES 2025. The new headset model VIVE Focus Vision launched in Sep (Report link, priced at US$999) mainly targets high-end gaming and enterprise users, offering users sharper graphics, faster response time, and more immersive experiences. Meanwhile, the company continues to work with ToB (Business) clients to expand MR/ VR applications, for example, Sagrada Família VR exhibition, and VIVELAND in Kaohsiung.
Sunny Optical (2382.HK, Neutral): Sunnyverse, the subsidiary of Sunny Optical, demonstrated XR glasses solution and optical module products during CES 2025, supported by the company's capability to provide customized design for clients. IoT, wearables, and Robotics applications are also expected at CES, including AI camera of devices empowered by AI assistant, AI IPC vision solution for pet detection, and OCR solution for smart ironing.
AAC (2018.HK, Buy, on CL): AAC demonstrated "Immersive Demos" and "Interactive Workshops" sessions at CES to showcase its product offerings across acoustics, haptics, optics and hinges. In Dec, the company's new generation of acoustics solution with 600% higher volume and 25% lower power consumption was adopted by Vivo Y300, and we view the enhanced solution is positive to drive better mix. Meanwhile, post PSS acquisition, AAC is expanding its automotive acoustics client base, including Geely (Galaxy E5), Smart (Audiobox for new model.

Besides Chinese companies at CES, we outlined:

Insulin superior to pills for pregnancy-related diabetes

Diabetes that begins during pregnancy is best managed with insulin injections rather than oral medication, according to new research.

When dietary changes are not enough to control gestational diabetes, many patients prefer to start treatment with metformin, an inexpensive generic oral diabetes medicine, sometimes adding another oral medicine, rather than using insulin, the trial investigators noted in a report published on Monday in JAMA.

The American Diabetes Association recommends using insulin as the first-line therapy to bring blood sugar under control in gestational diabetes, while the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends metformin.

In an 820-patient trial, researchers set out to prove the pills are just as good as insulin at preventing complications of diabetes during pregnancy. That turned out not to be the case.

Rates of infants born large for gestational age, a complication linked to birth injuries, were 23.9% with oral medication versus 19.9% with insulin.

Oral treatment also was associated with greater risks of dangerously low blood sugar in mothers and in newborn babies.

An editorial published with the report praised the researchers for their “valiant, yet ultimately unsuccessful, attempt” to prove that women can safely opt for the cheaper and easier-to-administer pills.

For now, it said, “insulin reigns supreme.”

https://whbl.com/2025/01/08/health-rounds-fewer-post-surgery-complications-found-in-diabetes-patients-taking-glp-1-drugs/

'Fewer post-surgery complications found in diabetes patients taking GLP-1 drugs'

People with diabetes had fewer complications after surgery if they were managing their disease with GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs such as tirzepatide and semaglutide, a recent study found.

Diabetes patients who had been taking tirzepatide, sold by Eli Lilly as Mounjaro, or semaglutide, sold by Novo Nordisk as Ozempic and Rybelsus, experienced 12% lower rates of hospital readmission following surgery, 29% lower rates of wound re-opening and 56% lower odds of blood clots forming at the surgery site than similar patients not using these drugs, researchers reported in Annals of Surgery.

Risks of bleeding and infections were similar regardless of whether patients were taking GLP-1 drugs.

The findings were drawn from medical records on 35,020 operations performed in 13,129 patients with diabetes between February 2020 and July 2023, half of whom were taking GLP-1 drugs. All the patients had similar risk factors for complications, according to the report.

The study does not prove that GLP-1 drugs prevented complications but suggests possible benefits.

“These findings from such a large number of patients and procedures suggest that taking these drugs shouldn’t worsen overall post-surgical complications and may even reduce the likelihood of some of them,” study leader Dr. Jason Spector of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center said in a statement.

His team is currently trying to determine whether GLP-1 drugs are associated with altered risks of post-surgical complications in patients without diabetes, as semaglutide and tirzepatide are also the active ingredient in the popular weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Zepbound, respectively.

https://whbl.com/2025/01/08/health-rounds-fewer-post-surgery-complications-found-in-diabetes-patients-taking-glp-1-drugs/

Eli Lilly's obesity drug gets Medicare coverage for sleep apnea

Eli Lilly’s popular obesity drug Zepbound can now be covered by government-backed Medicare drug plans, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said on Wednesday.

Zepbound in December became the first drug approved in the U.S. for sleep apnea, but commercial insurers and employers had so far hesitated to cover the drug due to its high cost.

The CMS also said obesity medications that receive approval for use in another disease can get coverage under Medicare plans for adults aged 65 and older and those with disabilities.

https://whbl.com/2025/01/08/eli-lillys-obesity-drug-gets-medicare-coverage-for-sleep-apnea/

World animal health body urges tighter bird flu controls after US death

More should be done to control the spread of bird flu among animals to avoid more cases in humans, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Wednesday, following the first death of a patient from the virus in the United States.

Avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has spread across the world in recent years, ravaging flocks, pushing up food prices, and raising concerns about a new pandemic.

"This situation really highlights the importance of managing risk at the animal source, which is really essential to prevent the spread of bird flu and its possible transmission to humans," WOAH Director General Emmanuelle Soubeyran told Reuters.

Soubeyran called for more investment in monitoring the virus in wild birds and animals to control what she said was an unprecedented outbreak due to its global reach and the number of species infected, notably dairy cattle in the United States.

"If there is a lack of awareness of the situation, people are more likely to become infected and the virus will be able to circulate between poultry, pigs, cows, and wild animals. This is where a mutation (of the virus) will happen and potentially create a pandemic," she said.

Bird flu is usually carried by migrating wild birds before being transmitted between farms and, in some cases, to humans, mostly farm workers.

Soubeyran also repeated calls for a wider use of vaccination, in addition to control measures, to avoid a spread of the virus.

"If used correctly, it will reduce viral circulation and therefore exposure to humans," she said.

Large exporters, except France, have been reluctant to vaccinate birds, fearing that other countries would interpret that as an admission of a problem and impose trade restrictions.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-01-08/world-animal-health-body-urges-tighter-bird-flu-controls-after-us-death

US to build new stockpile of bird flu vaccine for poultry

The U.S. will rebuild a stockpile of bird flu vaccines for poultry that match the strain of the virus circulating in commercial flocks and wild birds, the Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday, in a sign of the widespread and devastating nature of the nation's persistent outbreak.

The outbreak, which began in poultry in early 2022, has killed more than 130 million commercial, backyard and wild birds in all 50 states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths of millions of egg-laying hens pushed wholesale egg prices to record highs last month.

Bird flu is also circulating among dairy cattle herds and has infected nearly 70 people, most of them farm workers exposed to sick poultry or cattle. The U.S. reported its first human death related to bird flu on Monday.

The U.S. built a poultry vaccine stockpile after the prior major bird flu outbreak in 2014 and 2015, though the vaccines were never used, the agency said in a press release.

"USDA believes it is prudent to again pursue a stockpile that matches current outbreak strains," the release said.

Egg and turkey farm groups have called for deploying a vaccine, citing the economic toll for farmers of killing their flocks.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said such deployment would not be possible in the short term, in part due to trade risks. Many countries ban imports of vaccinated poultry over concerns the vaccine could mask the presence of the virus.

The vaccines purchased by USDA following the prior bird flu outbreak were developed by Merck & Co, Ceva and one by U.S. government researchers, said David Suarez, who was acting laboratory director of the USDA’s Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, in a 2023 interview.

"All the vaccines they purchased expired, and they threw it away," Suarez said in 2023.

Suarez at the time said there was limited appetite for rebuilding a vaccine stockpile until it was likely birds would be vaccinated.

"There's not an appetite of using the limited resources on something that only has a shelf life of two to three years," he said.

Animal health company Zoetis reached out to USDA during the 2022 outbreak and was told the government did not plan to make new purchases for its vaccine stockpile, the company said in 2023.

The USDA also said it has enrolled 28 states in its national bulk milk testing program to detect bird flu in dairy herds, and that testing so far had not detected new infected herds in states that previously were virus-free.

In the past 30 days, USDA has reported infected herds in California and Texas, according to agency data.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-to-build-new-stockpile-of-bird-flu-vaccine-for-poultry/ar-AA1xbVZZ

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Wednesday, January 8, 2025