CCTV News:On January 5, the National Development and Reform Commission held a special press conference to introduce the achievements made in promoting the fifth anniversary of the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

　　At the meeting, a reporter asked what measures have been taken and what effects have been achieved in recent years to improve the function of the golden waterway of the Yangtze River?

　　Su Jie, deputy director of the Comprehensive Planning Department of the Ministry of Transport, pointed out: First, according to the idea of "deep downstream, smooth midstream and extended upstream", the Yangtze River golden waterway system should be accelerated. Over the past five years, more than 20 waterway construction projects have been carried out successively. A number of major national projects, such as the first phase of the South Channel of the Yangtze River Estuary, the 12.5-meter deep-water waterway below Nanjing, the 6-meter deep-water waterway from Wuhan to Anqing, the section from Changmenxi to Xiongjiazhou in the middle reaches of Jingjiang River, and the Chaotianmen to Jiulongpo in the upper reaches, have been completed and put into operation one after another. The Three Gorges ship lift with the largest scale and the highest technical difficulty in the world has been completed and put into operation. At present, there are 50,000-ton seagoing vessels navigable below Nanjing, 5,000-ton vessels navigable below Wuhan, 3,000-ton vessels navigable below Chongqing and 2,000-ton vessels navigable below Yibin.

　　The second is to strengthen the integration and development with new technologies and continuously improve the ability of waterway service support. The digital waterway of the Yangtze River trunk line runs through the whole line, and the coverage rate of electronic waterway map reaches 100%, realizing the interconnection with Hanjiang River and Ganjiang River, obviously improving the dynamic supervision and emergency support ability of the waterway, and reaching the standard rate of waterway depth and the normal utilization rate of navigation marks all reach 100%. At the same time, it provides users with visual information and personalized services to assist ships to sail safely in situations such as ship intersection, yaw obstruction and special waters.

　　The third is to practice the concept of ecological priority and green development and carry out the practice of green waterway construction. Implement the concept of eco-environmental protection in the whole development cycle of the Yangtze River waterway, adopt eco-environmental engineering structure, implement measures such as eco-environmental monitoring, proliferation and release, and innovatively carry out the restoration and construction of ecological conservation areas, ecological wetlands and other habitats. In the past five years, the greening rate of revetment works of waterway engineering has reached more than 80%, and more than 160 ecological revetments, ecological beach protection, artificial fish nests and artificial fish reefs have been built, and more than 9 million fish and snails have been released in compensation.

　　Su Jie pointed out that the improvement of the waterway conditions of the Yangtze River waterway standard has promoted the large-scale development of ships. In 2020, the average tonnage of ships in the Yangtze River trunk line reached 1,960 tons, an increase of 42% compared with 2015. The rapid development of river-sea direct and river-sea combined transport has effectively guaranteed the economic and social development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. In 2020, the cargo throughput of the Yangtze River trunk line exceeded 3 billion tons, a record high, an increase of 40% compared with 2015.

　　Su Jie said that the next step will be to further systematically improve the navigation capacity of trunk waterways, speed up the construction of golden waterways in the whole basin, and create an aorta with smooth domestic and international double circulation.

[Soda soda market welcomes "antihypertensive drugs"]

Since the Spring Festival, the commodity market has frequently become hot spots, and agricultural products, non-ferrous metals and precious metals have taken turns to stage. Recently, coal and iron ore in the black building materials sector have also begun to show their heads. In this context, the soda ash market has also ushered in "antihypertensive drugs", which ushered in Xiaoyangchun under the stimulation of maintenance.

Since the third quarter of last year, the oversupply of soda ash market has become the core contradiction. The supply pressure brought by the commissioning of the new plant makes it difficult to reverse the trend of excess inventory of soda ash. At present, the soda ash market is in a state of "hypertension", and the supply pressure will continue to increase in the future. Although the planned production capacity in 2024 is lower than that in 2023, the total production capacity of 6 million tons in Alashan Phase I Line 1-3 and Jinshan Phase V will be released in 2024. In addition, in the second and third quarters of this year, the soda ash industry will also face the commissioning of 1 million tons of new plants from Fufeng, Debon and Xiangyu Salt Chemical, and the supply pressure will continue to increase.

Although the soda ash industry is facing supply pressure, the market pressure can be effectively alleviated by exceeding the expected maintenance. The recent increase in the price of soda ash is mainly affected by the unexpected reduction of Fengcheng, Jinshan, Ammonia Alkali Source, Longshan, Alashan, Junhua, Yongli, Nanfang Alkali Industry and Hongsifang. At the same time, the favorable stimulus of policies, such as fully ensuring the timely and quality delivery of real estate projects under construction, and starting construction of additional national debt projects before the end of June this year, also boosted market sentiment.

However, the long-term "high blood pressure" trend of soda ash market is difficult to reverse unless the industry makes deep adjustment. The marginal effect brought by maintenance is gradually weakening, and the supply pressure in the future is still relatively large. As a peak season contract, 09 contract is stimulated by favorable factors such as maintenance, and it is easy to go up and down in the short term, which is more suitable for bargain hunting. But in the long run, the soda ash market will still face downward pressure.

When investors participate in the soda ash market, they should pay attention to factors such as supply pressure, policy changes and industry adjustment, rationally analyze market trends, and make investment decisions cautiously.