China’s next bet, the used car market

What’s a popular trend in most regions of the world, was unknown to China until the 2000s. Automotive market research reports claim that most people were only buying new cars. But China is finally adopting the trend drilling holes in people’s pockets and the ozone layer at a slower rate than earlier.

Used cars are not only economical but also reduce the carbon footprint greatly. All the energy and resources that go into procuring raw materials, the production processes, and the assembly of new cars are saved. This, according to market research data, means that about 35% of the vehicle’s lifetime carbon emissions is saved! Apart from lowering the carbon footprint of the country, what other impacts can this new trend have on the vast land of China?

The country before and after entry into the used car market

There are a plethora of considerable reasons why the Chinese did not favor the used car market. The primary reason being the poor-quality manufacturing. The prototypes were designed to be affordable and not necessarily durable. The prospective second-hand buyers had no ways that could determine the accident history or other necessary specifics of the vehicle in a concrete manner.

Moreover, the local government’s regulations did not allow choice. Cross-province sale of used vehicles was restricted as a way of supporting the indigenous makers and dealers.

Now, the government has begun freeing the population from such rules. People are starting to realize the value of secondhand cars. The sales of used cars in China have only gained pace since the 2010s and are still not at par with most of the world.

An advancement that has aided the thriving of this market is the improvement in production quality. Cars now meet the quality and safety standards and, therefore, last longer than earlier. With the prevailing conditions, a forecast analysis from market research would predict that the used car market will continue to grow while continuing to remain uncompetitive. The US has been among the behemoths of this sector and China, in 2020, despite all the progress, will remain years away from matching up to it.

The used car market has definitely added value to China’s economy. Investors are noticing its growth and have bet billions of money on it already. This creates possibilities for the entry of entrepreneurs next. Many car companies have already begun schemes for second-hand cars.

How will this serve the government’s motives?

The entry of the used car market into China sets up a network in which the government and its citizens can live symbiotically.

The government has stated its will to go completely electric on road in the coming years. The used car market is driving China towards the low-carbon future that its government wishes for while creating no financial loss for it citizens.

Gradually, as an increasing number of clean-tech based cars will be made, traditional engine run vehicles will transition to second and third owners. They will soon be eased out of the system creating no troubles.

The used car market is thus seen to build a promising model for China’s prosperous future.

Vertical farming promises a balance between demand and supply

The global population has attained a burst. With the rising number of people, there is an increased competition for land space to stay on, and to nurture resources for mankind’s sustenance. Just like every other, the Agriculture and Food market faces the challenge of decreasing availability of terrestrial space for the set-up of farms and its subsidiaries. In fact, when the demand for feed for the growing population is rising, the area for farming the produce is reducing as a sacrifice for shelter.

Space-saving architectures of buildings include multistoried structures. When we humans sensed the low availability of space, we started to convert individual apartments to flats over flats. So, now that agricultural land is on a decline, what do we do?

Yes, we stack up layers! To obtain high crop yields in the less space available to conventional agriculture, farms are rather constructed indoors as vertically inclined and integrated structures. This kind of farming is referred to as vertical farming and is looked up as a solution to feed the population despite the lack of space caused by urbanization. 

Can vertical farming take the place of conventional methods?

 

The vertical farming market is seen as capable of generating produce all-round the year through the controlled environments that are maintained. This can be much more fruitful than the traditional sow and reap cycles. What’s more?

·        There is no possibility of the pesticides or herbicides used to seep into nature and take a toll on our health

·        It saves water. Vertical farmers have devised ways to recycle water by fish farming. The water from the plants are directed to fish tanks and the waste from fish is used to nourish the crops.

·        Not just water, every other nutrient required can be supplied only in the required amounts.

·        Moreover, no heavy machinery is required to maintain the plants. So, costs are cut-down and the resources that go into their manufacture are saved.

·        Profitability is raised. The crops are less prone to extremities of climatic conditions. Artificially stimulated conditions can further optimize their growth

·        And most importantly, vertical farms save space! 

So, is vertical farming an ideal solution?

 

While vertical farms do guarantee a more sustainable solution, market research reports don’t unanimously see it as an ideal solution. After all, every new method has its pros and cons. The downsides to vertical farming include

•         High-cost involvement

                1.      To find an appropriate indoor setting in today’s urban environment is costly  
                2.      The costs of constantly maintaining an artificial environment can be prohibitive

•       Not all traditional crops are suited for vertical farming. This includes staples like wheat and potato

•       It is difficult to find an area for production that also has a good market for your crop. The high-cost involvement doesn’t allow a lot of investment in transport and logistics.

Since the positives of vertical farming are many, through extensive research, solutions can be devised for the existing challenges. This will highly increase the efficiency and productivity of the agriculture and food market.

Will China soon be a global power supplier?

The situation in discussion

Laos lies almost entirely within the lower Mekong river basin. And, companies in China have contracted the building of multiple large-scale hydropower dams on this river. These big dams have big drawbacks.

Leaving aside the steep social and environmental costs, Chinese-built dams on the Mekong river have left the nation of Laos with an abundance of electricity; so much that it needs a quick implementation of a profitable distribution plan. Xie Quiye, the current president of the Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute has been given the charge of developing one.

With this responsibility being charged on Xie, he has put forth a proposal of Laos transporting its electricity to nations embarked in the entire of the continent’s south-east. According to him, being a regional power hub, not only will Laos be freed from its glut, but this initiative will also be a profitable marriage between the various power markets in the world.

However, energy and power industry analysts claim that the overburdened situation of Laos is being aggravated by additional companies stepping in to compete for more dam contracts. Will Xie’s plan stand this challenge?

Testing Xie’s concept

It’s feasibility

To be transporting electricity to the distances aimed at, at the first glance, it may not seem economical. But China’s ultra-high voltage cable (UHV) technology has enabled it to transport heavy energy loads with assured safety standards at affordable prices.

It is about a decade old technology that is capable of matching generation to consumption demands effectively and also reducing transmission losses. This was developed as a solution to the great distance between the energy resources and load centers. While hydropower was majorly generated in the west, its demand was the highest in the east. Scaling up the same technology, China expects to be able to transmit power as far as Germany.

Will it be profitable?

With China eyeing a role as the world’s major power supplier, it is interesting to analyze if the devised temporary solution can actually profit the industry in the long-run. Surprisingly, it can!

Marketresearch says that, much like the situation of the neighbors Laos and China, the entire world is faced with a situation where domestic markets are not big enough for producing regions and mega-projects in various countries face a lack of energy supplies. This means that China’s global power grid investments will come with good returns. There will be a better allocation of the power surplus.

Is there another side to this story?

China is known for its sleek moves. This initiative may be more than economic; it may be strategic. The robust commercial expansion of China-based institutions into the energy and power sector may be a signal for China trying to attain a monopoly in a sector that forms an integral part of our everyday lives.

Over the past years, Chinese companies have been noticed to invest big money overseas in projects running with mammoth forces like America and Europe. China’s push for interconnectivity is thus being questioned for its true ambitions.

Amazon gears up for a battle against Walmart

After Walmart acquired a controlling stake of 77% from India’s online retailer Flipkart, it’s neck-to-neck competitor, Amazon, has made its next move. It is being speculated that the e-commerce giant is seeking a stake in the Indian conglomerate, Future Group making it evident that the company is looking forward to establishing a physical presence as strong as its virtual one. With Walmart having failed to succeed with any of its incepted 21 stores, analysts are dubious about its prospects in India.

Will Walmart’s Flipkart acquisition give it a competitive advantage or will Amazon’s latest decision sustain it ahead?

India as the new battleground

There has been a long-known rivalry for a position in the future of the retail market in the United States of America where Walmart is a venerable chain of discount stores and Amazon, the king of E-commerce.

Walmart has a really strong hold on the markets of the US. The American retail giant, however, chose to expand into India through the Bangalore-based company Flipkart who is also in a drag-out clash with Amazon for the Indian market. Walmart’s first initiatives to become a trusted brick-and-mortar retail chain in India failed. There continues to be a strict regulation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in this country. So, this newer strategy is seen as an exploitation of the growing online presence of today’s customers. Flipkart, as a firm, is registered in Singapore but currently has a sturdy ground in the Indian sectors of online fashion and electronics. An extensive analysis would thus elucidate the thought process behind Walmart’s Flipkart acquisition. These two companies have now teamed up against Amazon with a bigger money at disposal now.

Given this situation, would Amazon’s investment in the Future group give a boost to its firepower?

The potential impact of Amazon’s investment in Future Group

Renowned business analysts claimed from a detailed market research that Walmart’s 200 billion-dollar investment in Flipkart could be a futile effort from the perspective of this competition. This is because they believe that the latter will continue to remain the face of the business and will also further benefit from the advanced infrastructure that the former is capable of providing it with.

Amazon has stepped into physical retail to fend off Walmart’s entry to India. Its multichannel approach will surely benefit it in the competition although the investment in Future Retail’s e-commerce will not directly lead to a great monetary influx. Amazon will be capable of expanding its consumer base by entering the grocery segment through Future Group. Future group will in turn benefit from Amazon’s existing consumer base and sourcing operations.

Are there any short-term benefits?

The clash between the retail titans has no end in sight. The immediate benefits land in the homes of the consumer. Not only will the market have more choices than ever, many of these will also not become more accessible and affordable. At this point, there is no specific basis to claim which company will more likely edge the other one out, but it is a common opinion that most small players and start-ups will be wiped away.

The employability of drone technology in various sectors

Evolving with newer capabilities at every instant, the current day unmanned aerial vehicle technology can even give you an ultimate bird’s-eye view of the land. These completely ground controlled vehicles are commonly referred to as the drones. Their use has already become mainstream in a lot of fields but they are under constant development.

Some of the recent advancements in the global drone market include:

Serving the needs of remote areas

Drone-based delivery

The ability to surpass higher altitudes, damaged roads or even flooded areas with ease have made drones a good delivery system. This is particularly helpful in remote areas where people do not have an easy access to medical supplies. A California based start-up, Zipline, is an epitome of solutions in this case. They have been using drones to deliver on-demand for the past two years. They’re in the spotlight recently for having built the fastest delivery drone that can fly at a velocity of 121kmph. The other specs of this vehicle include its potential of traversing 160 km in a single round-trip and carrying up to 1.75 kg.

Amazon has also gained good attention in the technology market to have patented a science that can help drones recognize and respond to human instructions through voice and gestures. This means that, in the future, you might even be able to call-out to a drone or help it with instructions to reach its destination!

A conduit for internet

Free space optical communications technology is on the rise as a potentially superior alternative for cabled delivery of internet. Drones are expected to serve remote places on the globe with this technology. They would supposedly use laser to deliver broadbands and these signals will be received on the ground through set-up receivers. The success of this concept has been tried and tested positive by Facebook in Yuma, Arizona.

Drones as a clean energy technology?

That surely doesn’t appear like a distant future.

Although drones are currently not being employed directly in the production of clean energy, they have definitely been viewed as capable of maintenance of structures that do so. For instance, wind turbines used to generate electricity in colder areas often tend to accumulate snow on their blades altering their properties. This reduces the efficiency of the system greatly. In systems that are devoid of a de-icing arrangement, cleaning is an expensive and labor-intensive process. Drones for such maintenance are still in the R&D phase but are expected to be a cheaper and more efficient alternative.

This technology will be able to serve all industry operations that occur at taller points from the ground like the aforementioned. These processes also include storage, job site monitoring, etc. They have also been employed to check commercial jets for dents or scratches.

Drones for research

Drones have also proved important for the behavioral study of various living organisms. With the evolving threat of Zika, mosquitoes that spread them are being targeted for identification through drones. This will allow researchers to define and study their breeding spots so they can alert health officials about it.

Studying animals like whales that reside in regions like the oceans and seas has also been aided by drones. Their behavior is recorded and tracked by drones hovering over the water bodies and studied by researchers in distant labs around the globe. This will also reduce threats to animals in the course of studies and their natural behavior can be noted without hindrance.

Market research shows that although the innovation has driven ire from a good proportion of the population for the breach of privacy, the drone continues to float in the air. In fact, the market is burgeoning at a rate which is hastening the revolutionization of the world.